In memoriam of Harry Scott Smith, 1883 - 1957

Harry S. Smith, was born in 1883 to a poor farming family in Nebraska. He was trained in Biological Control in the northeast United States where he worked on the biological control of gypsy moth with the USDA. Upon his appointment to Sacramento in 1913 to work on biological control issues important to California, Smith brought recognized entomological training in biological control to California for the first time. 

Dr. Smith was an authority on the subject of biological control. He had charge of the parasite and predator work at the Citrus Experiment Station at Riverside, California. The State of California has played a leading part in biological control investigations since the inception of this method of controlling insect pests.  

The phrase “Biological Control” was first used by Smith in August 1919 at the meeting of Pacific Slope Branch of the American Association of Economic Entomologists at the Mission Inn in downtown Riverside.

Based on his experiences on biological control of forest and pasture pests, Smith brought caution and tempered exaggeration about biological control in California as he worked with citrus growers and other commodity groups.
Dr. Smith left UC Riverside $15,000 to develop a scholarship fund to support training and education in biological control.

Photo reproduced from page 261 in "The Biological Control of Insects" by Assistant Professor Harvey L. Sweetman, Massachusetts State College, Amherst, Massachusetts. This book was published in 1936 by the Comstock Publishing Company, Ithaca New York. We thank Jennifer Walker photo restoration. 

Please support the Harry Scott Smith Scholarship Fund

Harry Scott Smith left UC Riverside $15,000 to develop a scholarship fund to support training and education in biological control. This fund has since grown but is insufficient to provide meaningful support to students wanting to be trained in biological control.

Our goal is to build the Harry S. Smith Scholarship fund to a significant level where the corpus of the fund will be able to generate enough revenue to provide substantial support to students wanting to be trained in biological control. This can only be achieved by actively soliciting donations from individuals, industries, and organizations that have benefited over the years from biological control projects that have been run by UC scientists, in particular entomologists at UC Riverside. 

If biological control is to continue to prosper in southern California we need to continue recruiting and training high-quality students. To do this, we need to be able to provide substantial financial support, and the Harry S. Smith Scholarship is one way to attract excellent students to UC Riverside.

If you would like to support this scholarship but have more questions, please download this brochure or contact Mark Hoddle by email (mark.hoddle@ucr.edu) or by phone (951) 827-4714.

A tax-deductible donation can be made online, here. 

More information about Harry Scott Smith's Legacy

Harry Scott Smith, in Memoriam, 1959

Claussen C.P. and S.E. Flanders. 1958. Harry Scott Smith 1883-1957. J. Econ. Entomol. 51(2): 266-267

Anon. 1958. Harry Scott Smith Memorial Fund. Bull. Entomol. Soc. of Am. 4(3) 113

A special message from Mark Hoddle

With an ever-increasing number of production challenges facing the citrus industry, biological control is still one of the best tools available for reducing economic damage from invasive pests, and projects on Asian citrus psyllid and Diaprepes root weevil are attempting to... Read more

A message from Dr. W. Joe Lewis about Harry Scott Smith's Legacy

At the 1990 National Meeting of the Entomological Society of America, I was awarded the privilege to present the Founder’s Memorial Lecture in honor of Harry Scott Smith.  Selection as the Founder’s Memorial Lecturer was, of course, highly gratifying.  But, by far, the greater pleasure was the opportunity to use this presentation to honor Prof. Harry Scott Smith, a true giant in our profession. Read more