Dr. C. Wayne Berisford is recognized for his research and teaching in forest entomology at the University of Georgia, where he has served for the past 40 years. He recently retired as a professor in the Department of Entomology and as an adjunct professor in the Warnell School of Forestry and Natural Resources. Berisford conducts basic and applied research on forest insects, and he previously taught graduate and undergraduate courses.
He has published over 200 journal articles and several book chapters. His research has focused on biological control of forest insects and the use of pheromones for direct control and to optimize the timing of traditional chemical controls. He has maintained long-term research bark beetles, pine tip moths, seed and cone insects, and introduced forest pests, including the gypsy moth, pine shoot beetle, and hemlock woolly adelgid. He was a member of a research and applications group that developed and registered the first pheromone-based control technique for the southern pine beetle. Prior to retirement, he taught Forest Protection Entomology, Entomology in Natural Resources Management, and Immature Insects at UGA.
Berisford is a Fellow of the Georgia Entomological Society, and he has received several awards, including the A.D. Hopkins Award for Distinguished Service to Forest Entomology, the U.S. Forest Service 75th Anniversary Award for contributions to conservation, and the D.W. Brooks Award for Agricultural Research. A symposium on forest insect research was held in his honor at the 2006 ESA Annual Meeting. He received his B.S. degree in forestry from West Virginia University, and M.S. and Ph.D. degrees from Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University.
(updated October, 2007)