| Howard Taylor Ricketts | |
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Howard Taylor Ricketts
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| Born | February 9, 1871 Findlay, Ohio |
| Died | May 3, 1910 (aged 39) Mexico City, Mexico |
| Fields | Bacteriology |
| Known for | blastomycosis, bacillus, typhus |
Howard Taylor Ricketts (February 9, 1871 – May 3, 1910) was an American pathologist after whom the Rickettsiaceae family and the Rickettsiales are named.
He was born in Findlay, Ohio.[1] 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 a tick[2], 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 to measure its effects.[1] The pathogen causing Rocky Mountain spotted fever, Rickettsia rickettsii was named after him. After this eponymous genus, the larger family and order were given their names.
In 1909, Ricketts became interested in a strand of typhus known as tabardillo, due to a major outbreak in Mexico City, and the apparent similarity of the disease to spotted fever.[1] Days after isolating the organism that he believed caused typhus, he himself died of the disease.[3]
Ricketts was survived by his wife, Myra Tubbs Ricketts, and children. His family established an annual student research prize, the Howard Taylor Ricketts Prize, at the University of Chicago in 1912.[4]