About the Director

Medical entomologist Gregory Lanzaro has served as the director of the University of California Mosquito Research Program (UCRMP) since 2002. He also directs the Vector Genetics Lab and newly formed (as of February 2006) UC Malaria Research and Control Group.

Dr. Lanzaro's area of expertise: genetics and population biology of mosquitoes that transmit malaria

His research focuses on population and molecular genetics of insect vectors of human disease, with an emphasis on malaria in Africa; and molecular genetics and immunology of insect vector salivary proteins

He received his bachelor of science degree in biology from Kansas State University, his masters degree in entomology from the University of Arizona, and his doctorate in entomology from the University of Florida. His research at the USDA Insects Affecting Man and Animals Laboratory in Gainesville, Fla., under the direction of Dr. Jack Seawright, led to his Ph.D in 1986, and dealt with the genetics of Anopheles quadrimaculatus. After receiving his Ph.D., Dr. Lanzaro joined the Department of Entomology at Mississippi State University as assistant entomologist and worked on the genetics of the floodwater mosquito, Psorophora columbiae, as part of the USDA Riceland Mosquito Management Program.

In 1988 Dr. Lanzaro joined the Department of Entomology at the University of California, Davis, to work as a post-doctoral fellow under the direction of Dr. Bruce Eldridge. At UC Davis, his work on the genetics and taxonomy of snowpool Aedes mosquitoes led to the description of two new species of mosquitoes, Ae. clivis and Ae. washinoi.

In 1991 Dr. Lanzaro joined the Laboratory of Malaria Research at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) in Bethesda, Md., where he conducted research on the molecular population genetics and ecology of Anopheles gambiae, the principal vector of malaria in sub-Saharan Africa. In addition, he worked on the genetics and molecular biology of sand fly vectors of visceral leishmaniasis in Latin America. In 1995 he left NIH to join the faculty in the Department of Pathology and Center for Tropical Diseases at the University of Texas Medical Branch (UTMB), Galveston. At UTMB he continued his research on malaria vectors in Africa and sand flies in Latin America.

In 2002 Dr. Lanzaro returned to UC Davis to direct the University of California Mosquito Research Program. In addition to his 50 percent appointment as UCMPR director, Dr. Lanzaro holds faculty appointments in the UC Davis College of Agriculture and Environmental Sciences, Department of Entomology, and School of Veterinary Medicine, Department of Population Health and Reproduction. He continues to maintain an active research program on vectors of malaria in Africa and visceral leishmaniasis in Latin America.

Dr. Lanzaro serves on numerous committees and panels outside of California. He chairs the editorial board of the Journal of Medical Entomology, is a member of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases grant review study section in Vector Biology, and is a member of the external advisory board of the Johns Hopkins University Malaria Research Institute.