The Center for Vector Biology was established within the School of Environmental and Biological Sciences at Rutgers University in 2007 continuing a long and illustrious history rooted in vector biology and control. Rutgers Professor John B. Smith's seminal book on mosquitoes in 1904 heavily influenced research and control programs worldwide. Smith's pioneering legislation passed by the New Jersey legislature in 1912, led to state laws that were widely emulated nationally and  internationally and continue to influence mosquito control activities.

Pr. Dina Fonseca is the director of the Center for Vector Biology at Rutgers. She teaches courses in Medical and Veterinary Entomology and Population Genetics, researches the ecology and evolution of invasive species, and does extension research on ways to control invasive mosquitoes, including prevalence and molecular basis of insecticide resistance. From 2008 to 2014, Prof. Fonseca was the PI on an areawide (AW) USDA funded project to develop better ways to control the Asian tiger mosquito in temperate climates. Under the aegis of the AW-ATM and among many other achievements, she developed rapid qPCR assays to identify dengue vectors in pools of eggs and tested the susceptibility of multiple USA populations of Ae. albopictus to conventional PH chemicals. Prof. Fonseca current focus is the development of high-resolution population genomics (nextGen) for Ae. albopictus.