Glen M. Kohls

Glen Milton Kohls (born October 23, 1905 in Vesta , Minnesota , United States ; died August 3, 1986 in Hamilton , Montana ) was an American entomologist , arachnologist, and parasitologist .

Life

After graduating from high school in Kalispell , Kohls enrolled at Montana State College and began studying biology with a focus on entomology under Robert A. Cooley . Already in the first year he broke the high school to participate in a project for at Cooley biological tick control in the Rocky Mountain Laboratories to work. After a year in which he deals with the on ticks of the species Dermacentor variabilis parasitic wasp Ixodiphagus hookeri focused and more of these parasites than 300,000 for the release in the Bitterroot Mountains bred, Kohl returned to the Montana State College back and acquired in 1929 a bachelor's degree .

After completing his studies, Kohls began working at Rocky Mountain Laboratories for almost 40 years. Kohls returned to university during the Great Depression of the 1930s and received his master's degree in 1937. The reason for the resumption of studies was Kohl's concern that he, like some colleagues, might be sent on unpaid leave due to the economic crisis.

During World War II, Kohls initially served as an instructor at the Walter Reed Army Medical Center . In September 1943 he went to New Guinea as a member of the newly formed USA Typhus Commission . Kohl's research in New Guinea focused on the development and testing of repellents to ward off trombidiform mites that parasitize on humans and transmit the causative agent of Tsutsugamushi fever . Kohls and his team were able to develop agents for impregnating clothing that significantly reduced the infection rate among American soldiers in the Pacific theater of war. In the further course of the Pacific War , Kohls went to Burma as deputy commander of the typhus unit . He finished his military service as Lieutenant Colonel and returned to Rocky Mountain Laboratories in 1946.

Glen M. Kohls (left) with Robert A. Cooley in front of the Rocky Mountain Laboratories tick collection, 1940

As a parasitologist, Kohls mainly dealt with ticks and fleas and the pathogens they transmit as vectors . In the year of his return from military service to Rocky Mountain Laboratories, Kohls took over the role of curator of the tick collection from the retired Robert A. Cooley. The collection took a significant boom under Kohls and developed as the United States National Tick Collection to the world's largest and most important collection of ticks. Since 1949 Kohls was a scientist member of the Public Health Service Commissioned Corps .

Kohls published more than 180 scientific publications between 1928 and 1973, including a large number of initial descriptions of parasites. He was one of the world's leading experts on tick taxonomy and tick-borne zoonoses . Kohls worked on projects to fight diseases such as tularemia , tsutsugamushi fever, Rocky Mountain spotted fever, and Colorado tick fever .

The University of Maryland awarded Kohls an honorary doctorate in 1966. Shortly before retiring from the service, he was awarded the United States' Meritorious Service Medal in 1969.

Dedication names

Entomologists and arachnologists named more than a dozen species of ticks, spiders, and insects after Glen Milton Kohls. In 1950, the genus Kohlsia was described by his colleague Robert Traub . Kohlsia is a genus of North and Central American fleas that primarily parasitize on rats and other small mammals .

Publications (selection)

Robert A. Cooley and Glen M. Kohls: Egg laying of Ixodiphagus caucurtei du Buysson in larval ticks . In: Science 1928, Volume 67, No. 1748, P. 656, doi : 10.1126 / science.67.1748.656 .
Glen M. Kohls: Tick rearing methods with special reference to the Rocky Mountain wood tick, Dermacentor andersoni Stiles . In: Paul Simon Galtsoff et al. (Ed.): Culture methods for invertebrate animals . Comstock Publishing Company, Ithaca, New York 1937, pp. 246-256, digitized .
Robert A. Cooley and Glen M. Kohls: The Argasidae of North America, Central America and Cuba . American Midland Naturalist Monograph No. 1. The University Press, Notre Dame, Indiana 1944, digitized .
Robert A. Cooley and Glen M. Kohls: The genus Amblyomma (Ixodidae) in the United States . In: Journal of Parasitology 1944, Vol. 30, No. 2, pp. 77-111, doi : 10.2307 / 3272571 .
Robert A. Cooley and Glen M. Kohls: The genus Ixodes in North America . Bulletin of National Institute of Health Sciences No. 184. Government Printing Office, Washington, DC 1945, OCLC 8576959 .
Glen M. Kohls: Eight new species of Ixodes from Central and South America (Acarina: Ixodidae) . In: Journal of Parasitology 1956 , Volume 42, No. 6, pp. 636-649, doi : 10.2307 / 3274884 .

Web links

Interview with Glen M. Kohls at his home in Hamilton, Montana, August 2, 1985. The interview was conducted by medical historian Victoria A. Harden Online PDF , 576 kB.

literature

Individual evidence

↑ Carleton M. Clifford and James E. Keirans: Obituary. Glen Milton Kohls 1905-1986 , pp. 375-376.
↑ Victoria A. Harden: Rocky Mountain spotted fever. History of a twentieth-century disease , pp. 161-162.
↑ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e Carleton M. Clifford and James E. Keirans: Obituary. Glen Milton Kohls 1905-1986 , p. 376.
↑ Victoria A. Harden: Rocky Mountain spotted fever. History of a twentieth-century disease , pp. 209-210.
^ Robert Traub: Siphonaptera from Central America and Mexico. A morphologyical study of the Aedeagus with descriptions of new genera and species . Chicago Natural History Museum, Chicago 1950, digitized .

personal data
SURNAME	Kohls, Glen M.
ALTERNATIVE NAMES	Kohls, Glen Milton (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION	American entomologist, arachnologist, and parasitologist
DATE OF BIRTH	October 23, 1905
PLACE OF BIRTH	Vesta , Minnesota , United States
DATE OF DEATH	August 3, 1986
Place of death	Hamilton , Montana

[Clifford_375-1] Carleton M. Clifford and James E. Keirans: Obituary. Glen Milton Kohls 1905-1986 , pp. 375-376.

[Harden_161-2] Victoria A. Harden: Rocky Mountain spotted fever. History of a twentieth-century disease , pp. 161-162.

[Clifford_376-3] Carleton M. Clifford and James E. Keirans: Obituary. Glen Milton Kohls 1905-1986 , p. 376.

[Harden_209-4] Victoria A. Harden: Rocky Mountain spotted fever. History of a twentieth-century disease , pp. 209-210.

[Traub-5] Robert Traub: Siphonaptera from Central America and Mexico. A morphologyical study of the Aedeagus with descriptions of new genera and species . Chicago Natural History Museum, Chicago 1950, digitized .