Professor EmeritusRichard Russell

Richard C. Russell M.Sc., Ph.D., FACTM, was the first Professor of Medical Entomology at The University of Sydney (Faculty of Medicine), and was the Founding Director of the Department of Medical Entomology at Westmead Hospital.

He was with the School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine at the University of Sydney from 1970 until its closure in 1987, whereupon he moved to the University Department of Medicine (Western Clinical School at the Westmead Hospital campus), with joint appointment to the School of Public Health at the Camperdown main campus. At Westmead Hospital he established the Department of Medical Entomology in the Centre for Infectious Diseases and Microbiology at the Institute of Clinical Pathology and Medical Research.

He has had experience with all aspects of medical and public health entomology, but his research has been primarily with the biology and ecology of mosquitoes, and their role as pests and vectors of arboviruses and other pathogens (e.g. malarias and filarias), and he has had a long term involvement with quarantine concerns for exotic mosquito species. He has also worked with biting midges, and ticks and mites, and other arthropods of medical and public health concern.

His university teaching programs have been primarily built around the epidemiology and control of vector-borne diseases, and delivered mainly in postgraduate courses on tropical medicine, and public and environmental health (with communicable and infectious disease streams).

In addition he has provided extramural instruction and training on principles and practice of mosquito population management, including surveillance and control, over almost 40 years to health related personnel associated with mosquito pest and vector control programs in many countries, and for federal and state government and local authorities in all states and territories of Australia.

In his professional capacity, he has travelled widely internationally, visiting universities, research institutes and field control programs. He has worked as a consultant in mosquito-borne disease and mosquito control in all states of Australia, and in 20 countries in the Asian and Pacific regions, and South America (incl. for the World Health Organization WHO, Australian Agency for International Development AusAID, and the French Institut Pasteur).

In 1984, he established the first Australian state-wide mosquito and arbovirus surveillance program for the New South Wales Department of Health, and this remains an annual public health protection program in NSW that has been imitated by other states. He is an advisor on mosquito-borne arbovirus disease and its control to the Australian States and Commonwealth Departments of Health, and has worked for 30 years as a consultant on mosquito population and wetland management for national and state government and municipal authorities, and various industry and private concerns.

Prof Russell is principal author of the 'Encyclopedia of Medical and Veterinary Entomology' (2013), and is the author of the monographs 'Mosquitoes and Mosquito-Borne Disease in Southeastern Australia' (1993) and 'A Colour Photo Atlas of Mosquitoes of Southeastern Australia' (1996). He is a co-author of the 12 volume monograph series 'The Culicidae of the Australasian Region' (1980-1989), as well as 'Mosquito Eradication – The Story of Killing Campto' (2013), and 'A Guide to Mosquitoes of Australia' (2016). He has also published more than 200 scientific papers, has provided more than 200 survey and commercial technical reports, and has presented more than 180 papers at scientific meetings in Australia and many countries internationally.

He has received Fellowships from the World Health Organization (1977), the Winston Churchill Memorial Trust (1987) and the University of California, Berkeley (2003).

In 2009 he received the ‘Distinguished Achievement Award’ for “Outstanding Accomplishment in Vector Ecology” from the International Society for Vector Ecology. He has served as a subject editor for the 'Journal of Medical Entomology', and on the editorial boards for 'Vector Borne and Zoonotic Diseases' and the 'Australian Journal of Entomology'. He has been the Australian delegate to the Board of Trustees of the 'International Federation for Tropical Medicine', and in 2012 was awarded Life Membership of the 'Mosquito Control Association of Australia'.

He retired in 2013, and is now Professor Emeritus in the Faculty of Medicine and Health, and at the Westmead Clinical School. He remains active in research and with advisory/consultancy roles.

e-mail: richard.russell@sydney.edu.au