Class of 2024

Dr. Harold Harlan, BCE, grew up in a large family that did not have a lot of money. He worked hard to earn scholarships to pay for college, where he planned to major in agriculture. But as fate would have it, one class changed the course of his life.

“Dr. Paul Freytag introduced me to entomology in a class I took during my junior year of undergraduate college. He made that course so interesting,” he recalls. “I didn’t know if I could even major in entomology, so I asked. I promptly changed my major, and the rest, as they say, is history.”

After changing his major to entomology in 1965, he earned his bachelor’s degree from The Ohio State University in 1967. A year later, he was drafted into the U.S. Army. He learned he could become an Army Entomologist if he earned his master’s degree. “I met those goals and had a successful 25-year active-duty Army career, retiring in 1994,” he reports.

Dr. Harlan’s career did not end there, however. In 1994, he became an adjunct professor for the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences. He gave invited lectures and lab sessions in its Tropical Medicine Courses annually through 2017.

In addition, Dr. Harlan has been an active member of the Entomological Society of America (ESA) for 56 years; his involvement extends to symposia, testing and outreach and service on several committees. Most notably, he coined the term Associate Certified Entomologist (ACE), and helped develop related requirements and procedures for it, as well as the Board Certified Entomologist (BCE) certification. The ACE certification is designed for professionals whose training in entomology has been achieved through continuing education, self-study, and on-the-job experience, whereas a college degree is required for BCE certification.