Howard Taylor Ricketts

Howard Taylor Ricketts (1871-1910) was an American pathologist after whom the Rickettsiaceae family and the Rickettsiales are named. In the early part of his career, Ricketts undertook research at Northwestern University on blastomycosis. He later worked in the Bitterroot Valley of Montana and at the University of Chicago on Rocky Mountain spotted fever. This early pathology, entomology and epidemiology research in Hamilton, Montana lead to the e... more

Howard Taylor Ricketts (1871-1910) was an American pathologist after whom the Rickettsiaceae family and the Rickettsiales are named. In the early part of his career, Ricketts undertook research at Northwestern University on blastomycosis. He later worked in the Bitterroot Valley of Montana and at the University of Chicago on Rocky Mountain spotted fever. This early pathology, entomology and epidemiology research in Hamilton, Montana lead to the eventual formation of the Rocky Mountain Laboratory there. While in Montana, Ricketts and his assistant discovered that the agent that carried the bacillus for the latter was the Rocky Mountain wood tick (the American dog tick is also a carrier). Ricketts was devoted to his research and, on several occasions, injected himself with a pathogen in order to measure its effects. The pathogen causing Rocky Mountain spotted fever, Rickettsia r. was named after him. After this eponymous genus, the larger family and order were given their names. In 1909... less