Charles W. Woodworth

Charles W. Woodworth (1865-1940) founded the Entomology Division of the University of California, Berkeley, and is considered the founder of the UC Davis Department of Entomology.

A native of Champaign, Ill., Woodworth received his bachelor's degree in 1885 and his master's degree in 1886 from the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign. His career includes studying at Harvard University under H. A. Hagen, then considered the leading entomologist in the United States. In 1888, Woodworth was appointed entomologist and botanist at the University of Arkansas's Arkansas Agricultural Experiment Station. He suffered from successive attacks of malaria while in Arkansas. He left in 1891 to become assistant in entomology at the University of California (now UC Berkeley) where he founded the Division of Entomology. He also participated in the development of the Agricultural Experiment Station, the beginnings of what is now UC Davis.

At Berkeley, he advanced from assistant professor in 1891, associate professor in 1904, professor in 1913, and was named emeritus professor upon his retirement in 1930.

He published extensively. His major contributions included:

• A List of the Insects of California (1903)
• The Wing Veins of Insects (1906)
• Guide to California Insects (1913)
• School of Fumigation (1915)

Woodworth served as the first editor and first contributor to the University of California Publications in Entomology. He is also credited with first breeding in quantity, the common fruit fly, Drosophila, and suggesting to W. E. Castle that Drosophila might be used for genetical work.

Woodworth became a charter member in 1889 of the American Association of Economic Entomologists, which merged in 1953 with the Entomological Society of America, founded in 1906.

The Pacific Branch of the Entomological Society of America (PBESA) memorializes him with the C. W. Woodworth Award. This award, the PBESA's largest, is for achievement in entomology in the Pacific region of the United States over a 10-year period. It is principally sponsored by Woodworth's great-grandson, Brian Holden, and his wife, Joann Wilfert, with additional support by Craig W. and Kathryn Holden, and Jim and Betty Woodworth.