The Entomological Society of Alberta is pleased to grant to the following individuals Honorary Membership in the Society in recognition of their accomplishments and dedicated service in the field of entomology.
Dr. Ken Fry
(Olds, AB) obtained a B.Sc. in entomology from the University of Alberta, followed by a M.Sc. from the University of Guelph, after which he returned to the University of Alberta to complete his Ph.D. with Dr. Douglas Craig. His doctoral research focused on the physico-chemical influences in food-particle capture and handling by culicid and simuliid larvae to assist with the development of species-specific control measures.
Ken was a research scientist with the Alberta Research Council for nine years before moving to Olds College. He is the Coordinator for Horticulture, the Vice President of Academics, and an entomology instructor at the college. His research continues to focus on the biological control of insect pests and integrated pest management. He curates the insect collection at Olds College and participates in the Invasive Alien Species Surveillance program (Society of Prevent Dutch Elm Disease), among other programs. He actively engages with students, the general public and other groups on topics like biological control and integrated pest management.
In 2008 he co-authored, along with Doug Macaulay and Don Williamson, Garden Bugs of Alberta: gardening to attract, repel and control. Not only has Ken been a member of the society for more than two decades, he has actively participated to further our activities. He was the Vice-President in 1998 and President in 1999, led the organizing committee for the 2000 meeting held in Edmonton and 2007 and 2013 meetings held in Olds, and served as the secretary for our society for a decade (2007 – 2017).
Dr. George Ball
(Edmonton, AB)
Dr. John Robert (Bob) Byers
(Lethbridge, AB) grew up on a mixed farm in southern Saskatchewan. After completing high school he farmed for several years, during a drought period, before deciding that there were better options. He completed undergraduate and advanced degrees at the University of Saskatchewan in1966. After a post-doctoral term at the University of Birmingham in the UK he returned to the U of S for one year to teach entomology and animal physiology. He then joined the Research Branch of the Department of Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada, first in Ottawa at the Biosystematics Research Institute (1968-1981) and then at the Lethbridge Research Centre (1981-1997).
His first research at BRI was on the ultrastructure of insects and plant parasitic nematodes. He then switched to a study on the biosystematics of the genus Euxoa, contributing substantially to a series of publications on this economically important genus of cutworms. After transferring to Lethbridge, he and his colleagues did seminal work on the sex pheromones of noctuid moths, leading to the identification of sex attractions for all the important pest species of prairie cutworms. Although his main effort at Lethbridge was to investigate the use of species specific attractants to monitor and manage cutworm pests in annual crops, his research incidentally also resulted in the clarification of the taxonomic status of several cryptic species complexes within the Noctuidae. He also published many articles on a variety of other insects of economic or casual interest. He became a Fellow of the Entomological Society of Canada in 1994. Since his official retirement in 1997, he has continued as Honorary Research Associate at the Lethbridge Research Centre. He willingly acts as a resource and mentor to student entomologists and a source of wisdom to his colleagues. The members of the Entomological Society of Alberta are most pleased to recognize him as one of their Honorary Members.
Mr. Joseph Alexander Shemanchuk
(Lethbridge, AB) obtained a diploma in Agriculture at the Olds School of Agriculture and then received B.Sc. (Agric) and M.Sc. degrees from the University of Alberta, majoring in entomology. After graduation from the U of A, Joe accepted employment with Agriculture Canada, his first assignment was to Churchill, Manitoba to develop measures against blood-sucking flies for armed forces. Joe was then transferred to Saskatoon to study the flight range of mosquitoes as it related to the spread of animal and human diseases.
In 1955, Joe was transferred to the Research Station at Lethbridge, where he worked until his retirement, to study the impact of irrigation on mosquito production and the resulting influence on the health of humans and livestock. Other research projects with which Joe was involved included a major study that concerned protection of cattle from blackflies in central Alberta, and investigations on the distribution, abundance and behaviour of bloodsucking flies as related to health and welfare of livestock and humans.
In partnership with a mycologist at the University of Washington, Joe described the details of the life cycle of Coelomomyces, a fungus pathogenic to mosquitoes. Joe was active overseas as a Scientist Exchange Fellow, sponsored by the National Research Council of Canada, to the former USSR Academy of Sciences and to the Slovak Academy of Sciences. He also spent four months in Iran as a volunteer establishing an insect diagnostic laboratory. Honours awarded to Joe include Honorary Membership in, and a Fellow of, the Entomological Society of Canada.
