Description
The papers of entomologist Cornelius Becker Philip, Research Associate and Fellow of the California Academy of Sciences, expert
in disease bearing insects. Includes correspondence, personal items, negatives, photographs, and drawings.
Background
Cornelius Becker Philip was born in Fort Lupton, Colorado, on 12 June 1900. He graduated from the University of Nebraska
(1923), and obtained a Ph.D. in Entomology from the University of Minnesota (1932). Philip participated in the Rockefeller
Foundation (1928-1929) in the study and control of yellow fever in West Africa. Later employed at the Rocky Mountain Laboratory,
U.S. Public Health Service, Hamilton, Montana (Associate to Principal Medical Entomologist 1930-1970, Assistant Director 1950-1962,
Director 1962-1964) he became recognized as a world expert in ticks, biting flies, and the diseases they transmit. During
World War II he served as a member of the U.S. Typhus Commission developing protective measures against scrub typhus, a mite-borne
disease of the Armed Forces in the Pacific. Upon his retirement from government service at the age of 70, he continued his
scientific career as a Research Associate of the California Academy of Sciences (1970-1987, Fellow, 1972).
Philip was acknowledged as a Mayo Foundation and Theobald Smith lecturer (1940, 1948), Guggenheim Memorial Foundation Fellow
(1941-1942), Outstanding Achievement Alumnus award University of Minnesota (1960), and Consultant, Pan American Health Organization
(1962-1970). Organizational memberships included the American Association for the Advancement of Science, American Society
of Parasitology (Vice-President 1948, President 1953), Entomological Society of America (Board of Governors 1959-1962), American
Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene (Council 1960), and Pacific Coast Entomological Society (President 1974).