His Passion Was Contagious
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D. C. McCool,
Notre Dame Magazine,
2021.
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. More related to this: Inherited male-producing factor in Aedes aegypti On the role of lethal mutants in the control of populations Eradication of Culex pipiens fatigans through cytoplasmic incompatibility. Possible use of translocations to fix desirable genes in insect populations.
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