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The History of the Department of Plant, Soil & Insect Sciences at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst technically begins in July of 2004. This is when the former Departments of Plant & Soil Sciences, Entomology, and Plant Pathology were officially merged. However, the roots of the Department really begin with the opening of the Massachusetts Agricultural College in 1867. The first greenhouses on campus, the original Durfee Plant Houses, were erected that same year. "Mass Aggie" had a total of 5 Faculty members to teach the first 33 students. The curriculum included Horticulture and Agriculture, and thus our foundation was set. As the College grew to the University it is today, departments were formed and programs were shifted here and there over the years. So, you can say that our Department has been a masterpiece in the works for over 135 years...an experiment with perfection that finally gelled in 2004. To fully understand why we are who we are, you might enjoy reading about who we were. We hope that who we will become, will be who we are, only better.
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UMass is a land grant institution, begun in 1867. Recognition of the importance of helping people reduce losses caused by insects led immediately to the inclusion of entomology in the curriculum in 1868, when the first course on the subject was taught. The discipline began to develop more fully at UMass in 1886 when C. H. Fernald was appointed to the faculty. C. H. Fernald ran the entomological research of the MA Agricultural Experiment Station and emphasized studies of such pests as the gypsy moth, browntail moth (then a severe pest, since controlled), spruce budworm and San Jose scale. By 1899, entomology as a discipline began to offer students the opportunity to obtain PhDs, the Department of Entomology was organized, and H. T. Fernald (son of C. H.) was hired. The Department granted its first PhD in 1902 (to W. E. Hinds, for work on thrips of North America). Rapid growth in the Department led to the construction, in 1909/1910, of Fernald Hall.
By 1935, Entomology at UMass was in full swing with professors Alexander, Crampton, Sweetman, Shaw, Bourne, Franklin, Whitcomb, and Becker. During this period, the Department gained a strong reputation for high quality research, particularly in taxonomy. Dr. Alexander is remarkable for his dominance of the taxonomy of his special group, the craneflies, of which he described over 10,000 kinds.
In the 1970s, as members of the previous group of faculty (largely devoted to taxonomy) retired, a new Department was built oriented towards insect behavior, physiology, and pest management. Faculty present in this group achieved wide recognition in several areas, including mosquito biology and vector potential (John Edman), behavioral control of fruit insects (Ron Prokopy and his famous red sticky trap), pheromones control of insects (Ring CardŽ), population dynamics of the gypsy moth (Joe Elkinton and the mouse/acorn connection), biological control (Roy Van Driesche, a new textbook on the topic and many projects), and others (see faculty list). The UMass IPM Program flourished in this period.
As the Department's "Third Generation" began to retire or move out about 1995, a redevelopment of the Department along still new lines began. Early changes have been in the direction of evolution and genetics (Adam Porter, 1997 and Ben Normark, 2000). New areas to be incorporated into the emerging new Department are a return to medical entomology and a new program in urban entomology and the role of insects in wild lands ecology and the management of invasive species.
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