Dr. Charles S. Burks

Charles S. Burks attained his B.S. in Entomology and his M.S. in Zoology from Iowa State University and his Ph.D. from the University of Missouri-Columbia. He has worked for the U.S. Department of Agriculture, Agricultural Research Service in Fresno County California since 1997. Much of his work has been with mating disruption and monitoring of navel orangeworm His research in the 2000s demonstrated greater abundance of NOW in pistachio than in almond, and demonstrated efficacy of aerosol mating disruption for reduction of NOW damage in almond. Subsequent research refined knowledge and application of mechanisms of NOW mating disruption and helped to introduce different products and formulations. As NOW mating disruption has expanded, he has developed products for monitoring NOW in mating disruption; this is a continuing area of research that recently has branched into remote monitoring methods. Burks is a member of the Entomological Society of America, and of Sigma Xi.