For more than 40 years, Professor David L. Wood has conducted research, taught, and consulted in forest and wood products entomology, insect chemical communication and integrated pest management. He has authored and co-authored over 210 papers in scientific journals, books, and technical proceedings. He has been the major graduate advisor and graduate committee member for over 50 M.S. and Ph.D. students, many of whom have become leaders in these disciplines. His services as an academic and technical expert have been sought internationally where he has been invited to lecture on important issues in forestry. He has also served as an external examiner on numerous graduate thesis defenses at universities in the U. S., Canada and Sweden. Prof. Wood has received awards for his research and administrative contributions from the Entomological Society of America, the Entomological Society of Canada, the International Society of Chemical Ecology, the Univ. of Calif., and the State Univ. of N.Y. College of Environmental Science and Forestry. His expert testimony on issues of concern in forest pest management has been requested on state and federal levels by policymakers, non-governmental organizations and the Swedish government.
In California, Prof. Wood has had a strong influence on a generation of land and resource managers and the pest control industry. He has worked closely with the Calif. Dept. of Parks and Recreation to develop an agency-wide appreciation for forest pest management. He has taught the biology and identification of wood-destroying insects to an entire generation of pest control specialists in northern California. This outreach has been facilitated at workshops sponsored by Univ. of Calif. Cooperative Extension, the Pesticide Applicators Professional Assoc., the Calif. Forest Pest Council and various industry venues.
In his research, teaching, and consulting activities, Prof. Wood takes an interdisciplinary approach, recognizing that insects are but one of the concerns of foresters, land managers, manufacturers and distributors of wood products, and the public. The impact of insects on trees and wood products occurs in the context of biotic, abiotic and socio-economic factors. He collaborates with forest and wood products pathologists, silviculturalists, fire ecologists, chemists, biostatisticians, geographic information systems specialists, lawyers and economists. This holistic approach to problem solving in cities, wildlands, and the wildland-urban interface has proven to be most effective in producing durable and cost-effective solutions.