Ricketts, Howard (1871–1910)

Howard Taylor Ricketts was an American pathologist and an ambitious pioneer of infectious disease who became renowned as the first to establish the identity of the infectious organism that causes Rocky Mountain spotted fever. The groundbreaking efforts of Ricketts and his research team was one of the earliest collaborations between physicians and entomologists, and the results have had an enormous impact on the often interdisciplinary field of epidemiology. His findings opened new pathways of knowledge in understanding the etiology of diseases.

Ricketts was born in Findley, Ohio. He completed his undergraduate degree in zoology at the University of Nebraska and went on to Northwestern University where he attained his medical degree. While working as a professor of pathology at the University of Chicago, he became interested ...