Hilo, Hawaii, United States
Dr. Roger Vargas is a research entomologist at the Daniel K. Inouye U. S. Pacific Basin Agricultural Research Center, Hilo, HI and holds a collateral appointment with the University of Hawaii Graduate Faculty. He is internationally recognized for his research in the areas of ecology, biological control, mass rearing, SIT and IPM of fruit flies. He is the author or co-author of over 220 (150 peer reviewed) scientific articles. He completed his B.A. in biology in 1969 at the University of California, Riverside and an M.S. in biology at San Diego State in 1974. He then moved to the University of Hawaii, Manoa, where he completed his Ph.D. in 1979 and has studied tropical entomology ever since. After a postdoc on Kauai Island he accepted a position with ARS in 1980 in Honolulu. From 1984 to 1990, he served as Research Leader of the Rearing, Radiation and Genetics Research Unit in Honolulu, where base funding increased from $500,000 to $3,000,000 through a series of area-wide fruit fly suppression trials. He has been called upon frequently by agencies such as the Animal Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS), International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), Secretariat of the Pacific Community (SPC) and Foreign Agricultural Service (FAS) for consultant and technical assignments overseas. Roger has made over 100 scientific presentations and participated in workshops worldwide. He developed a research proposal that resulted in the award of over $16.5 million in USDA/ARS AWPM funds to Hawaii. From 2002 to 2009, he coordinated the highly successful Hawaii Fruit Fly AWPM program that received seven major awards for IPM excellence. In 2010-11 he served as President of the Pacific Branch of the Entomological Society of America.