His Passion Was Contagious
His Passion Was Contagious
15928D. C. McCool, Notre Dame Magazine, 2021-01-01 19:03:35.
Craig was an entomologist and vector biologist whose interest in mosquitoes and the diseases they transmit to people was as contagious as the pathogens themselves. Hesburgh could not have chosen a more driven faculty member. In his 38 years at Notre Dame, before he died in 1995 at an Entomology Society of America conference in Las Vegas, Craig cultivated a legacy in a field that was in its infancy. His personality attracted even more people dedicated to eliminating mosquito-borne diseases, and the circle widened in unexpected ways. The Chicago native directed more than 40 doctoral students and mentored 38 postdoctoral researchers. He created Notre Dame’s Vector Biology Laboratory — vectors pass diseases from one organism to another — with a focus on the Aedes genus of mosquitoes. He became Notre Dame’s first member of the prestigious National Academy of Sciences (NAS). And he developed a program that has turned out hundreds of new field biologists who have gone onto careers in academia and public health.
