It's well deserved!
Scott, a UC Davis distinguished professor who officially retired in 2015, is internationally known for his work on the ecology and epidemiology of dengue, a mosquito-borne viral infection transmitted mainly by Aedes aegypti. He now resides in Luck, Wis., where his wife's family is from.
Only 1 percent of researchers make the global list of Highly Recited Researchers, as announced by Clarivate. The Web of Science Group, the information and technology provider for the global scientific research community, annually honors the 1 percent of scientists whose publications are the most cited in scientific papers.
"Of the world's scientists and social scientists, Highly Cited Researchers truly are one in 1,000," according to the Web of Science website.
Scott is one of 14 researchers from UC Davis--and one of some 6660 worldwide--to achieve the 2021 honor.
Scott's 19 publications listed in the report have been cited a total of 402 times. His most cited publication: “The Current and Future Global Distribution and Population at Risk of Dengue,” published in Nature Microbiology in 2019.
“Being a Highly Cited Researcher means a lot to me because it's an objective measure of the extent to which the scientific community finds helpful the work that my colleagues and I did,” said Scott, who joined the UC Davis Department of Entomology (now the Department of Entomology and Nematology) in 1996. “ I was privileged to work with exceptionally smart, hard-working, and insightful people. We had a lot of fun, but we also took our science seriously. We challenged each other in constructive and collegial ways. We are proud of the results of our efforts.”
Healthy Cites, Healthy People. Scott co-chairs a Lancet Commission that focuses on how prevention of viruses transmitted by Aedes mosquitoes fits into the growing Healthy Cities, Healthy People movement. Lancet Commissions are tasked with identifying the most pressing issues in science, medicine, and global health, with the aim of providing recommendations that change health policy or improve practice. “In this case, we are making the case for Cities without Aedes,” Scott said. "We aim to reduce the burden and threat from Aedes transmitted viruses through improved construction and management of modern urban environments that build Aedes mosquitoes out of cities and towns.”
Scott is a collaborator in a clinical trial designed to demonstrate and quantify the protective efficacy of a spatial repellent to reduce human mosquito transmitted virus infection in Sri Lanka. “This new project,” he said, “builds on a randomized controlled clinical trial that my colleagues I recently completed in Iquitos, Peru, which revealed a significant protective efficacy of a spatial repellent against human infection. Publication of those results a currently under review.”
“In addition to the clinical trial, my colleagues and I are publishing a series of papers from Iquitos that examine the role of people with in-apparent and mild infections in virus transmission. By accounting for factors underlying variation in each person's contribution to transmission we will be able to better determine the type and extent of effort needed to prevent disease.”
Scott's other activities include being a scientific advisor for a clinical trial in Brazil that is testing the public health benefit of Wolbachia for prevention of viruses transmitted by Aedes mosquitoes. “The study will assess the efficacy of releasing Wolbachia-infected Aedes aegypti into the environment in reducing human virus infection compared to standard vector control measures alone,” he said.
Scott serves on three World Health Organization committees, “which I find particularly rewarding because of their potential to improve public health policy and thus global health.”
Among his other activities:
- Chair of a group that is writing a chapter on Dengue Vector Control Guidelines that will be included in the updated version of WHO guidelines for dengue diagnosis, treatment, prevention, and control.
- Co-chair of the Wolbachia Evidence Review Group. “Mosquitoes infected with the endosymbionic bacteria Wolbachia are designed to have reduced capacity to become infected with and transmit a variety of viruses, which is expected to reduce human disease,” Scott explains. “Results from our deliberations will help the World Health Organization to develop guidelines for member States on the application of this exciting new intervention strategy.”
- Member of the World Health Organization Technical Advisory Group on the Global Integrated Arboviruses Initiative. The Arbovirus Initiative focuses on strengthening the coordination, communication, capacity building,research, preparedness, and response needed to mitigate the growing risk of epidemics due to arthropod transmitted viral diseases. Scott describes it as “a collaborative effort between the World Health Emergency Program, the Department of Control of Neglected Tropical Diseases, and the Immunization, Vaccines, and Biological Department at WHO. Members of the Technical Advisory Group have a broad range of expertise (clinical management, diagnostics, epidemiology, vector control, virology, vaccines, and travel medicine) and serve in an advisory capacity to WHO with a focus on essential and strategic guidance on management of disease. Our current focus is finalizing the Global Integrated Arboviruses Initiative, which will be presented to the World Health Assembly for review and approval.”
Challenging and Rewarding. “I am excited about and enjoy all these activities,” the medical entomologist commented. “They are challenging and rewarding extensions of the work I have done for that past 40 years.”
Scott, who holds bachelor and master's degrees from Bowling Green (Ohio) State University, received his doctorate in ecology in 1981 from Pennsylvania State University and did postdoctoral research in epidemiology at Yale University School of Medicine's Arbovirus Research Unit, part of the Department of Epidemiology and Public Health. He served on the faculty of the Department of Entomology, University of Maryland, from 1983 to 1996 before joining the UC Davis entomology faculty as a professor of entomology and director of the Vector-Borne Disease Laboratory. He was acting director of the UC Davis Center for Vector-Borne Research from 1996 to 1999, and director of the UC Davis Arbovirus Research Unit (2001-2003). He was selected vice chair of the Department of Entomology in 2006, serving until 2008.
Highly honored by his peers, Scott won the coveted Harry Hoogstraal Medal from the American Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene in 2018. His other honors include fellow of three organizations: American Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene (2014), Entomological Society of America (2010), and the American Association for the Advancement of Science (2008). He was named a UC Davis distinguished professor in 2014. In 2015, he won the Charles W. Woodworth Award, the highest honor awarded by the Pacific Branch of the Entomological Society of America.
The methodology that determines the “who's who” of influential researchers draws on the data and analysis performed by bibliometric experts and data scientists at the Institute for Scientific Information at Clarivate. It also uses the tallies to identify the countries and research institutions where these citation elite are based.
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