"Insects - Aliens from the planet earth"

Dr. May Berenbaum

Professor and Head of the Department of Entomology
University of Illinois
Urbana, Illinois

Building 003 Auditorium
January 31, 2003
10:00 AM

May Berenbaum graduated summa cum laude, with a B.S. degree and honors in biology, from Yale University in 1975. She attended graduate school at Cornell University and received a Ph.D. in ecology and evolutionary biology in 1980. Since 1980 she has been a member of the faculty of the Department of Entomology at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and has served as head of the department since 1992.

Dr. Berenbaum is internationally known for her contributions to the field of chemical ecology. In particular, she is interested in the chemical interactions between phytophagous insects and their host plants and the function of these interactions in the organization and structure of natural communities. Her work is distinctive in that it addresses insect/plant coevolution at multiple hierarchical levels. On the physiological level, she investigates mechanisms of toxicity of plant chemicals as well as molecular and biochemical adaptations of insects to these toxins. On the ecological level she examines patterns of insect host-plant use as a function of the distribution and interaction of plant chemicals. She is concerned with the practical application of ecological principles to insect-plant interactions in an agricultural context and in the use of these principles to facilitate bioprospecting--identification of pharmacologically active substances in plants.

In recognition of this work, she has received the George Mercer Award from the Ecological Society of America and the Founder's Memorial Award from the Entomological Society of America. She is a member of the National Academy of Sciences, a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and a member of the American Philosophical Society. In addition to her research she is devoted to teaching and to fostering scientific literacy. She is the recipient of the 1996 Entomological Society of America North Central Branch Distinguished Teaching Award and has authored numerous magazine articles as well as four books about insects for the general public.