Virtual Center
In Memorium: Dr. Nancy E. Beckage
Nancy Beckage was a distinguished scientist and we were honored to have her among our New Paradigm faculty. One of her main contributions to our program was exemplifying the Expansive Collaboration Model with the Global Health and Agriculture course she initiated as part of the honors program at University of California-Riverside. Nancy was present at the launching of the Mali Agri-Business Network in Bamako, September 2007, and visited with the village of Sanambele and the Coprakazan Cooperative in Zantiebougou. Her main contribution to our community-based research and service learning work in Mali was her collaboration in the laboratory phase of the malaria neem project which was part of the integrated management of malaria in Sanambele, Mali. This, combined with other faculty's work in the village strengthening economic empowerment of women of the village, sharing mosquito-protozoan life cycle stories, and physical management of mosquito rearing pools by villagers resulted in an absence of deaths from malaria since the end of the 2008 malaria season.
Article from InsideUCR, University of California-Riverside, 27 Feb 2008 
Chancellor Timothy White
University of California-Riverside
University of California-Riverside
Nancy E. Beckage, Professor Emerita of Entomology and of Cell Biology and Neuroscience, died at her home on April 2, 2012. She was 61.
Dr. Beckage was born September 10, 1950. She attended the College of William and Mary and received her B.S. from the University of Wisconsin in 1972. She was awarded a Ph.D. in zoology from the University of Washington in 1980, and remained there for a postdoctoral appointment. From 1983 to 1987 Dr. Beckage was a program director at the Seattle Biomedical Research Institute, before being named an assistant professor of entomology and USDA assistant entomologist at the University of Wisconsin-Madison in 1987.
Dr. Beckage joined the faculty of UCR's Department of Entomology at UC-Riverside on March 1, 1990, as an assistant professor and assistant entomologist. By 1997 she had achieved full professor rank. She retired on March 7, 2011, and was named Professor Emerita, after 21 years of service to the University of California.
Dr. Beckage's research was in the area of host-parasite interactions, a field in which she performed cutting-edge work. She was known for having made the significant discovery that primary molecular effects of parasitism on the host are due to the injection of a polydnavirus by the female wasp parasitoid. In 2004 she was elected a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, for "contributions to the field of insect physiology." In 2008 she received an Honorary Doctorate from ETH Zurich (Swiss Federal Institute of Science and Technology) for "contributions to the fields of insect endocrinology, insect immunology, and host-parasitoid interactions."
Other awards included the 2005 UCR Chancellor's Faculty Award for Excellence in Mentorship of Undergraduate Research and the 1996 UCR "Woman Who Makes a Difference" Award. She was a member of Sigma Xi, Gamma Sigma Delta, the Society of Invertebrate Pathology, the American Society of Zoology, and the American Society of Virology.
Dr. Beckage was known for her exceptional record of professional and university service and for her devotion to her students.
Services will be private. The family has requested that memorial gifts be made in Dr. Beckage's name to whatever charitable organization the donor chooses.
Dr. Beckage was born September 10, 1950. She attended the College of William and Mary and received her B.S. from the University of Wisconsin in 1972. She was awarded a Ph.D. in zoology from the University of Washington in 1980, and remained there for a postdoctoral appointment. From 1983 to 1987 Dr. Beckage was a program director at the Seattle Biomedical Research Institute, before being named an assistant professor of entomology and USDA assistant entomologist at the University of Wisconsin-Madison in 1987.
Dr. Beckage joined the faculty of UCR's Department of Entomology at UC-Riverside on March 1, 1990, as an assistant professor and assistant entomologist. By 1997 she had achieved full professor rank. She retired on March 7, 2011, and was named Professor Emerita, after 21 years of service to the University of California.
Dr. Beckage's research was in the area of host-parasite interactions, a field in which she performed cutting-edge work. She was known for having made the significant discovery that primary molecular effects of parasitism on the host are due to the injection of a polydnavirus by the female wasp parasitoid. In 2004 she was elected a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, for "contributions to the field of insect physiology." In 2008 she received an Honorary Doctorate from ETH Zurich (Swiss Federal Institute of Science and Technology) for "contributions to the fields of insect endocrinology, insect immunology, and host-parasitoid interactions."
Other awards included the 2005 UCR Chancellor's Faculty Award for Excellence in Mentorship of Undergraduate Research and the 1996 UCR "Woman Who Makes a Difference" Award. She was a member of Sigma Xi, Gamma Sigma Delta, the Society of Invertebrate Pathology, the American Society of Zoology, and the American Society of Virology.
Dr. Beckage was known for her exceptional record of professional and university service and for her devotion to her students.
Services will be private. The family has requested that memorial gifts be made in Dr. Beckage's name to whatever charitable organization the donor chooses.
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