Kenneth J. Linthicum

Kenneth J. Linthicum received the B.S., M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in 1972, 1974, and 1978, respectively, in Biology from the University of California at Los Angeles. He is currently the Center Director, Center for Medical, Agricultural and Veterinary Entomology, U.S. Department of Agriculture, Agricultural Research Service (USDA-ARS), Gainesville, FL. He directs a major ARS facility, consisting of four research units, employing 60 scientists and 150 support personnel, with a broad research program cutting across several national programs related to production, product values, and safety of crops and animals, as well as natural resources and sustainable agricultural systems. His scientific interests include vector and disease control, systematics, arbovirology, malaria, rickettsial diseases, and applications of geographic information systems and remote sensing to disease surveillance and epidemiology. His own research findings have been published in 186 papers in the national and international scientific literature, and presented in more than 315 papers given at national and international scientific meetings, including publications in the prestigious journals Science, Nature, Lancet, and the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, which included development of detailed models using remotely sensed data to enhance surveillance and control of vector-borne diseases. He has had resident assignments in Brazil, Kenya, and Thailand with numerous short-term assignments in Central and South America, Europe, Africa, Asia, and Australia. Dr. Linthicum was the recipient of the John I. Davidson Award for Practical Papers by the American Society for Photogrammetric Engineering and Remote Sensing, Federal Laboratory Consortium Laboratory Director of the Year in 2010, and is Editor Emeritus of the Journal of the American Mosquito Control Association. He has served on numerous research and policy review panels dealing with bioterrorism and vector-borne infectious disease topics for organizations such as the World Health Organization, Food and Agriculture Organization, the National Institute of Allergy & Infectious Disease, the Department of Defense, the Department of Homeland Security, and the National Academy of Sciences. He has provided consultation for NASA, NOAA, USDA, EPA, National Geographic, Smithsonian Institution, The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundations, The Wellcome Trust, and numerous universities on issues dealing with surveillance and control of vectors and vector-borne diseases.