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Bruce Tabashnik, PhD

Department Head and Regents Professor, Entomology
College of Agriculture, Life and Environmental Sciences
Bruce Tabanshnik

2026 University Distinguished Department Head

Bruce Tabashnik is Regents Professor and Head of the Department of Entomology at the University of Arizona. During his 29 years as Department Head at UA, the department has consistently ranked among the top entomology departments in the U.S. This reflects its outstanding research, instruction, and Extension programs, including the wildly popular Arizona Insect Festival and the Insect Discovery Program that has engaged over 40,000 schoolchildren from underserved communities. The department is also known for being exceptionally collaborative, collegial, and inclusive.

Born in Detroit, Bruce received his B.S. in Zoology at the University of Michigan. After his undergraduate studies, he worked on a communal farm and traveled in Africa, witnessing poverty and hunger. This journey spurred his passion to develop sustainable, environmentally friendly tactics for controlling insects, our major competitors for food. Tabashnik completed his Ph.D. in Biological Sciences at Stanford University, elucidating what makes some insects become pests. In postdoctoral research at Michigan State University, he used computer modeling to develop the theoretical framework for managing evolution of resistance that has been applied widely in agriculture as well as in medicine.

From 1983 to 1996, he was a faculty member at the University of Hawaii where he discovered and characterized the first case of field-evolved insect resistance to the bacterium Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt). Bt is the the world’s most widely used biopesticide because of its efficacy against pests and safety for humans and wildlife. In 1996, Bruce began his position as Department Head at UA and focused his research on the pink bollworm, a global cotton pest that had plagued farmers in the U.S. and Mexico since it invaded both countries a century ago. He was one of the leaders of  the multi-institutional team that eradicated pink bollworm from the U.S. and Mexico, for which he received awards from the USDA and the Entomological Society of America (ESA).

Tabashnik’s 413 scientific publications have been cited over 39,700 times (h-index = 102). His many honors include election to the National Academy of Sciences; Fellow of AAAS, Entomological Society of America (ESA), and the Royal Entomological Society; Lifetime Achievement Award, ESA; and the International Scientific Prize for Agriculture and Food.

Bruce lives in Tucson with his wife Andrea and son Gabe. He swims daily and loves hiking, photography, and travel.