Forensic Entomologist Robert Kimsey: Integral Part of Department Since 1990

Forensic entomologist Robert Kimsey, an associate adjunct professor and continuing lecturer since 1990 with the UC Davis Department of Entomology and Nematology, received appreciation, accolades and applause at the department's recent retirement celebration on the Moss Patio, UC Davis Alumni Center.

Since 1990, Kimsey has taught and interacted with some 7000 students, including entomology, biology and animal biology majors. He shares with his students his many and varied research interests: public health entomology; arthropods of medical importance; zoonotic disease; biology and ecology of tick-borne pathogens; tick-feeding behavior and biochemistry. 

He has served as the master advisor for the Animal Biology (ABI) major since 2010 and an ABI lecturer since 2001. He has taught ABI 50A for 20 years, giving lectures and instructing labs to a total of 900 students per year. He has taught ABI 187 for 12 years, presenting material to a total of 450 students.

Known as an outstanding teacher and mentor, Kimsey received

• the 2019 UC Davis Outstanding Faculty Advisor of the Year
• 2019 Eleanor and Harry Walker Faculty Advising Award from the College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences
• the 2020 regional faculty advisor award from NACADA, the Global Community for Academic Advising. 
• The 2020 Distinction in Student Mentoring Award from the Pacific Branch, Entomological Society of America, a branch that encompasses 11 Western states, parts of Canada and Mexico and U.S. territories.

In her five-minute allocated presentation, Elvira Galvan Hack, student advisor for animal biology and entomology majors, said that "Bob and I have worked together over 15 years.  It has been a pleasure and a lot of fun working with Bob; I have learned a lot from him. He's always encouraging and motivating students to realize their true potential. He is so inspiring."

 Kimsey and Hack shared the 2019 Eleanor and Harry Walker Advising Awards from the College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences, for top faculty advisor and top staff advisor, respectively. The awards honor excellence and innovation in academic advising.

Kimsey draws such unsolicited accolades on Rate My Professors as:

• “Dr. Kimsey is by far one of the best professors at UC Davis. His class never fails to entertain! You do need to put in the work to do well but it is very worth it! Dr. Kimsey truly cares about his students and wants to see them succeed and find a path that best suits them. Strongly recommend!”
• "This was the best class I've taken at UC Davis. You can tell that Dr. Kimsey really cares, and puts a lot of effort into his class.”

Kimsey serves as the advisor to the UC Davis Entomology Club and has taken the group on numerous field and collecting trips, including scientific excursions to Alcatraz. Kimsey is known as "The Fly Man of Alcatraz" in conjunction with his fly research that began on the island in July 2007 when he received a call about the annoying flies from entomologist Bruce Badzik, then integrated pest management coordinator with the National Park Service, Golden Gate National Recreation Area. He  recalled that complaints rose to a feverish pitch in late August, September and October.  Kimsey witnessed the incessant “shoo-fly” behavior on the docks and encountered it on a personal basis. He identified the troubling fly as a “kelp fly” (Fucillia thinobia) or “cormorant fly” in the family Anthomyiidae. “But it's not a kelp fly as such,” Kimsey said in a department  feature article. “It has nothing to do with kelp. It lives in purge-soaked soil under dead cormorants found in rookeries all around the island. It does not exist in any other place.”

His students are highly successful. Under his guidance, they have established careers as professor of microbiology at Cal Poly; campus veterinarian at UC San Diego; Crime Scene Investigation (CSI) Sergeant in Molecular Biology for Contra Costa County Sheriff; CSI Sergeant in Trace Evidence, Ballistics and Tool Marks for Contra Costa County Sheriff; CSI for Sacramento City Police, CSI in the Santa Rosa CA Department of Justice (DOJ) Laboratory, DOJ laboratory manager for the Central Region, Rippon, CA; and laboratory manager in the Jan Bashenski DOJ DNA Laboratory. Many others are serving as laboratory technicians, sergeants and sworn officers in local police and sheriff's units.

Kimsey serves on the admissions, membership, and executive committees for the Forensic Master’s Degree Program and chairs of the Diving Safety Control Board for UC Davis.  Since 1998, Kimsey has co-chaired the UC Davis Department of Entomology and Nematology's Picnic Day activities with a member of the Entomology Graduate Student Association. 

A U.S. Army veteran, Kimsey served as an instructor of medical entomology, epidemiology and preventive medicine in the Academy of Health Sciences from 1971-1974. He is a past president of the North American Forensic Association (2014-2016). He is Chief of Instruction, Secretary to the Board and Instructor for the San Luis Obispo Fire Death Investigation Strike Team (since 2011) and an instructor and member of the Glen Craig Institute Advisory Committee (2012-2016).

Nicknamed "Dr. Bob," Kimsey holds two degrees from UC Davis: a bachelor of science degree in 1977 and a doctorate in 1984. He is known as a "trusted advisor to graduate and undergraduate students, a mentor, teacher, friend and confidante." 

Many Interesting Conversations

"Over the years we have had many interesting conversations," Hack said of Kimsey. "For instance, Bob reassuring me a spider did not bite me. One year when Bob returned from a trip abroad, he shared having the most leech bites in a season--and so many other stories over the years.  Bob and I shared recipes, too; many of our conversations ended talking about food from all over the world."

"Bob is part of our family!" Hack said. "Several years ago, Bob came over to my mother’s home to learn how to make tamales.  My family has an annual tradition of making tamales.   My family--brothers, sisters, nieces, and nephews--all get together in my mother’s kitchen to make tamales--dozens and dozens of tamales.  Bob learned all the steps of making tamales.  Not only did Bob master making tamales, he researched where tamales originated!" 

"His love of cooking and sharing his recipes with others will continue to keep our family tradition passed on to other generations, by his sharing and teaching his family and friends how to make tamales."

Resources:

• The Fly Man of Alcatraz, department website, April 26, 2011
• Robert Kimsey Names Outstanding Faculty Advisor, department website, Oct. 14, 2019
• Robert Kimsey and Elvira Hack Win International Awards, department website, May 1, 2020