URI scientist named top researcher
by National Park Service

KINGSTON, R.I. -- July 17, 2000 -- Howard Ginsberg, a research ecologist with the U.S. Geological Survey located at the University of Rhode Island, has been named the Natural Resources Researcher of the Year by the National Park Service.

The award, a bronze sculpture of a buffalo (the emblem of the Park Service) was presented to Ginsberg by Michael Soukup, the Park Service's associate director for natural resource stewardship and science, at a meeting in Missoula, Mont. in June.

Ginsberg was recognized for his extensive research on the ecology and management of ticks and mosquitos in national parks, and for his research on the natural transmission of vector-borne diseases like Lyme disease. He provided assistance to Fire Island National Seashore, Gateway National Recreation Area, and other coastal parks in the Northeast in assessing the risk associated with mosquito-borne diseases like Eastern Equine Encephalitis and West Nile virus during the 1999 breeding season. He is also providing technical support to these parks for the 2000 mosquito season.

Ginsberg was the first to quantify movement patterns of the salt marsh mosquito, and provided evidence that most movement from a salt marsh on Fire Island, N.Y., was in search of food, not long-distance migration. He has consulted extensively about tick and mosquito-borne diseases, and has played a major role in establishing and overseeing vector-borne disease surveillance and management programs in eastern national parks and for the State of Rhode Island.

He earned his undergraduate degree in biology from the State University of New York at Stony Brook, and a doctorate in entomology from Cornell University. He lives in Wakefield.

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For Information: Todd McLeish 874-7892