In Memoriam of Mir S. Mulla, Ph.D. (February 15, 1925 – January 29, 2023): Man of the Achieving Family, Mentor, Scientist, Comminuty Activist, Friend, Colleague and More

Dr. Mir Subhan Mulla, man of the achieveing family, mentor, scientist, comminuty activist, friend, colleague and more, passed away peacefully at his home in Riverside, California on January 29, 2023, at age 97. He was laid to rest on February 4, 2023, at Crestlawn Memorial Park in Riverside, California. Mir is preceded in death by Lelia Mulla, his wife for 64 years, 4 children of David, Shireen, Dean and Janet, 5 grandchildren, 3 great grandchildren, and many brothers and sisters. Mir was born on February 15, 1925, as chosen by himself as his birthday, in the village of Zangawat, Panjwayi District, Kandahar Province, Afghanistan to a family of 12 brothers and 4 sisters. Mir received a scholarship in 1948 to Cornell University where he obtained his undergraduate degree in entomology and parasitology in 3.5 years. He received his doctorate at UC Berkeley in 1956, then joined the UC Riverside faculty in the same year and retired in 2006. During his graduate studies at UC Berkeley, he met Lelia (Lee) Patterson at the International House. They married in August 1954 and moved to Riverside upon his employment with UC Riverside. This couple later helped Mir’s brothers and sisters immigrate to the U.S. and settle in state of California.
As one of the founding faculty at UC Riverside Entomology, Dr. Mulla created an undergraduate-graduate course and seminars in Medical and Veterinary Entomology with Dr. Louis Riehl. His teaching included upper division and graduate seminar courses in medical and veterinary entomology. As a teacher, Professor Mulla possessed an almost unmatched scope and magnitude of knowledge and experience in the subjects he taught. He unreservedly shared his experience with students and scholars. As a lead of the world-renowned medical entomology program for graduate students focused primarily on the biology and control of mosquitoes and blackflies at UC Riverside Entomology, he trained 27 Ph.D. students, 3 masters students, 20 postdoctoral fellows and 30 visiting scholars from many countries during his career. Those who studied under Mir’s mentorship have been serving in key positions in academia, governments, and industries domestically and internationally.
Dr. Mulla significantly contributed to the research and development in biology, ecology, and control of arthropods of public health importance, including but not limited to, mosquitoes, eye gnats, midges, blackflies, and others, in particular, for his remarkable work on biorational larvicides (microbials, insect growth regulators, botanicals, and more). In his 50-year career, more than 550 scientific papers were published in peer-reviewed scientific journals. As a pioneer researcher on pestiferous eye gnats in the Coachella Valley, California, Mir, and his colleagues initiated and conducted systematic research on attractant, traps, trapping and trapping out (removal), agricultural practices, pesticide activity and efficacy ranging from conventional and biorational options for controlling the pestiferous species. At the same time, he extended his research to vector and nuisance mosquitoes and blackflies, where his most significant accomplishments were evaluations of various techniques and tools including organochlorines, organophosphates, carbamates, insect growth regulators (juvenile hormone analogs and chitin synthesis inhibitors) and natural predators (mosquitofish and tadpole shrimp), for their activity, efficacy, and non-target safety when used in mosquito control. Since the 1970s, Mir began evaluation on biopesticides, particularly the naturally occurring Bacillus thuringiensis subsp. israelensis (Bti) and Bacillus sphaericus. The former is now used for mosquito and blackfly control globally, and the latter for mosquito control in many countries. His research showed that Bti was effective against blackflies, implementation of his discoveries tremendously reduced the disease burden of river blindness, a filarial infection that is transmitted by blackflies in West Africa. Dr. Mulla’s research also covered other dipteran flies such as non-biting midges, where a universally used pesticide efficacy calculation equation was published – Mulla’s formula.
In scientific community, he served a consultant, advisor, member, or chairman on numerous national and international organizations such as US NIH, the US Agency for International Development, the UNDP, FAO and WHO. Lending his in-depth knowledge of vector biology and control, he provided advice for controlling important mosquito-borne diseases such as malaria, dengue fever, filariasis, and various viral encephalitis. Additionally, he guided Chulalongkorn University (Thailand), University of Tehran (Iran), Universidad Autónoma de Nuevo Leon (Mexico), University of the Punjab (Pakistan), and Government College University (Pakistan) in establishing their graduate student programs. As a founding scientist for the Society for Vector Ecologist (SOVE) in the US, he donated $50,000 for an annual memorial SOVE lecture in addition to his excellence of services for decades to this organization. Furthermore, Dr. Mir S. Mulla & Leila Mulla Endowed Scholarship Fund provides a merit scholarship to undergraduate and/or graduate students in College of Natural and Agricultural Sciences majoring in Entomology or Bio-Agricultural and/or Biomedical Sciences at UC Riverside.
In the non-scientific community, Mir served as a leader in the Riverside Muslim community. He and his wife Lelia founded the Islamic Society of Riverside and Orange Counties and played a key role in building the Islamic Center of Riverside, the first mosque in the Inland Empire of Southern California. His philanthropic work included supporting the local Muslim community, donating land to Riverside County Parks to preserve public access to Sugarloaf Mountain and establishing scholarships in the College of Agriculture and Natural Sciences at UC Riverside.
In recognition of Mir’s excellence in teaching, mentorship, and research, he was elected as a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) and Fellow of the Entomological Society of America (ESA), awardee of the Distinguished Service Award (1986) and the Distinguished Achievement Award (2006), and Lifetime Achievement Award (2009) from SOVE. The 49th SOVE annual meeting was dedicated to Dr. Mir Mulla in 2018. The Indian chapter of SOVE recognized him by establishing the Mir Mulla Award in 2019. Among more honors were the highest award from the American Mosquito Control Association, the Medal of Honor (2010), and the Meritorious Recognition Award from the Science Society of Thailand (1997). The King of Thailand recognized his many years of continuous contributions in developing the academic infrastructure in Thailand for instruction, research, and control of vector-borne diseases. The Coachella Valley Mosquito and Vector Control District dedicated the new state-of-the-art Biological Control Facility to Dr. Mir S. Mulla in 2006. Upon retirement, Professor Mulla was awarded the University of California’s Dickson Emeritus Professorship for 2008-2009.
Professor Dr. Mir S. Mulla will be greatly missed by his loving and devoted family, friends, students, and colleagues here in the USA and overseas as well.