Entomological Society of America Names New Fellows and Honorary Members for 2007

Lanham, MD; October 4, 2007—The Entomological Society of America (ESA) is proud to announce its selection of nine new Fellows and one new Honorary Member. Selection as an ESA Fellow acknowledges outstanding contributions in research, teaching, extension, or administration. Honorary Membership acknowledges those who have served the ESA for at least 20 years through significant involvement in the affairs of the Society that has reached an extraordinary level. The following honorees will be recognized during the ESA Annual Meeting, which will be held from December 9 to 12, 2007, in San Diego, California:

2007 Honorary Member

Dr. Michael E. Irwin received a B.S. from the University of California, Davis (1963) and a Ph.D. from the University of California, Riverside (1971). He was senior professional officer at the Natal Museum in South Africa; joined the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (UIUC) in 1974; served as head of the Office of Agricultural Entomology, UIUC, and director of the Center of Economic Entomology, Illinois Natural History Survey from 1990-1993.

He is currently Schlinger Research Emeritus Professor of Arthropod Biodiversity, UIUC; visiting professor at the University of Arizona; and research associate with the Illinois Natural History Survey, the California Academy of Sciences (CAS), the Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum, and the California State Collection of Arthropods. Irwin conducted research in international IPM, plant virus epidemiology, aphid migration, and stiletto fly (Diptera: Therevidae) systematics. He undertook 47 international consultancies, received numerous international and national competitive grants, and authored 200+ publications.

Irwin served ESA as a Governing Board Representative, as subject editor of JEE and on the editorial board of American Entomologist; as Chair of several committees. He was an editor of the Annual Review of Entomology, and served on the International Society of Plant Pathology’s Plant Virus Epidemiology Committee. He was co-convener of agricultural entomology at the 1996 International Congress of Entomology, and its convener in 2000; deputy executive director/board, Consortium for International Plant Protection; external member, IPM Technical Committee, USAID’s Collaborative Research Support Program; advisor, All Species Foundation; and is currently on the board of Discover Life in America.

Irwin organized USDA’s North Central Regional Research Committee on Migration and Dispersal of Insects, and in 1996 was awarded the Outstanding Achievement in Biometeorology by the American Meteorological Society. In 1999, Irwin was elected Honorary Fellow, CAS, and in 2004 he received UIUC’s first Global Impact Award.

2007 Fellows

Dr. C. Wayne Berisford is recognized for his research and teaching in forest entomology at the University of Georgia, where he has served for the past 40 years. He recently retired as a professor in the Department of Entomology and as an adjunct professor in the Warnell School of Forestry and Natural Resources. Berisford conducts basic and applied research on forest insects, and he previously taught graduate and undergraduate courses. He has published over 200 journal articles and several book chapters. His research has focused on biological control of forest insects and the use of pheromones for direct control and to optimize the timing of traditional chemical controls. He has maintained long-term research bark beetles, pine tip moths, seed and cone insects, and introduced forest pests, including the gypsy moth, pine shoot beetle, and hemlock woolly adelgid. He was a member of a research and applications group that developed and registered the first pheromone-based control technique for the southern pine beetle. Prior to retirement, he taught Forest Protection Entomology, Entomology in Natural Resources Management, and Immature Insects at UGA.

Berisford is a Fellow of the Georgia Entomological Society, and he has received several awards, including the A.D. Hopkins Award for Distinguished Service to Forest Entomology, the U.S. Forest Service 75th Anniversary Award for contributions to conservation, and the D.W. Brooks Award for Agricultural Research. A symposium on forest insect research was held in his honor at the 2006 ESA Annual Meeting. He received his B.S. degree in forestry from West Virginia University, and M.S. and Ph.D. degrees from Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University.

Dr. Joel R. Coats has been on the faculty of the Department of Entomology at Iowa State University for 29 years. He served a five-year term as Department Chair and is currently Interim Chair of that department. Joel’s areas of research and teaching specialization are insect toxicology and the environmental toxicology and chemistry of pesticides. A native of Ohio, Dr. Coats received his B.S. degree in zoology (chemistry minor) from Arizona State University, and he received his graduate degrees in entomology (chemistry minor) from the University of Illinois, specializing in insecticide toxicology, as a student of Robert L. Metcalf. He was a visiting professor in the Department of Environmental Biology at the University of Guelph, Ontario, Canada for two years.

He has served as major professor for 36 graduate students who are currently employed in the fields of entomology or toxicology. His scientific publication record includes seven books, 31 book chapters, six review articles, and 117 articles in peer-reviewed journals. Dr. Coats teaches all or portions of five graduate-level courses in the area of insect toxicology or environmental toxicology and chemistry. He is also a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. In 2006, he received the International Award for Research in Agrochemicals from the American Chemical Society’s Agrochemicals Division.

Dr. Harry K. Kaya is internationally recognized for his contributions to insect pathology and insect nematology, which include more than 220 refereed publications and book chapters on insect nematode behavior and ecology, microbial control of soil insects, and interactions between insect pathogens and other natural enemies (intraguild predation). He has coauthored an insect pathology book and has co-edited five books on invertebrate pathology, insect nematology, and forestry. His pioneering studies have contributed towards the development of entomopathogenic nematodes for use against various soil insect pests.

Kaya received B.S. and M.S. degrees in entomology from the University of Hawaii, and a Ph.D. in insect pathology from the University of California, Berkeley. He worked briefly as an entomologist at the Connecticut Agricultural Experiment Station (New Haven) before accepting a professorial position in the Department of Nematology and Department of Entomology at the University of California, Davis in 1976. He served as Chair of the Department of Nematology from 1994-2001, and was Treasurer (1992-1996), Vice-President (2000-2002) and President (2002-2004) of the Society for Invertebrate Pathology (SIP). He is especially proud of his students, postdoctoral fellows, and visiting international scientists, who have excelled in entomology, insect pathology or nematology. He is one of the founding editors of the journal Biological Control, and is currently Editor-in-Chief. Dr. Kaya has received a number of awards from ESA, SIP, and the Society of Nematologists.

Dr. Richard E. Lee, Jr. is internationally recognized for his research on physiological and ecological mechanisms of cold tolerance, dormancy, and the winter ecology of temperate and polar insects and other ectotherms. His field research includes work on Ellesmere Island in the High Arctic and five field seasons on the Antarctic Peninsula. Lee has published more than 195 refereed journal articles, reviews and book chapters. He is senior editor of two books and received a patent for the use of ice nucleating microorganisms for biological control. He has served on the editorial boards of American Entomologist, Environmental Entomology, Cryobiology, and CryoLetters.

Lee is also active in providing professional development opportunities for teachers, receiving more than $2.7 million in grants to support these activities. For the past 15 years, he has co-directed an environmental science program for Ohio elementary teachers (>1,000 alumni) taught at a field station in Wyoming.

After receiving his B.A. in biology from the College of Wooster (1973), he earned an M.S. (1976) and Ph.D. (1979) in zoology from the University of Minnesota. In 1982 he joined the faculty of Miami University in Ohio, where he is currently Distinguished Professor of Zoology. His honors include several teaching awards, the Benjamin Harrison Medallion from Miami University, and election as a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science.

Dr. J. E. McPherson is internationally recognized for his research of the Hemiptera-Heteroptera, which has focused on the ecology/systematics of both terrestrial and aquatic taxa, emphasizing bionomics. He has been an active researcher, with over 170 authored and coauthored refereed publications.

McPherson’s research has involved numerous life history studies, which have required a thorough knowledge of the morphological differences between immature stages within and between species. This, in turn, has required developing specific laboratory-rearing techniques to obtain the immature stages for synoptic collections as well as descriptive templates for those stages. As a result, he has described or co-described 183 instars and 35 eggs of 37 species of Hemiptera in 21 families. He has provided the first thorough life history information for several species, including many heretofore considered rare (e.g., Nepa apiculata, Pseudometapterus umbrosus, Galgupha ovalis). Much of his pentatomoid work has been included in two books, one dealing with the species that occur in northeastern North America (1982), the other dealing with the stink bugs of economic importance occurring in America north of Mexico (2000, coauthored).

McPherson received his B.S. in zoology (1963) and M.S. in biology (1964) from San Diego State University, and his Ph.D. in entomology (1968) from Michigan State University. He began his teaching career in the Department of Zoology at Southern Illinois University, Carbondale, in 1969, attaining the rank of professor in 1979.

McPherson has served the Entomological Society of America in several leadership positions, including as a member of the Governing Board (1994-1996, 2001-2003), President (2002), and Editor of American Entomologist (1993-2001). He was elected an Honorary Member of the Society in 2004, and has received the C. V. Riley Achievement Award (1997) and the Award of Merit (2006) from the North Central Branch.

Dr. Frantisek Sehnal studied biology and chemistry in Czechoslovakia, completed Ph.D. studies under the guidance of Vladimir Novak, and worked as a postdoc with Howard Schneiderman at Case Western Reserve University before he returned to a permanent position with the Entomological Institute of the Czech Academy of Sciences. He initially investigated ecophysiology of caddisflies, but gained recognition for his work on the action of juvenile hormone and juvenoids (Steinhouse Memorial Lectureship Award from the University of California, Irvine in 1972). Subsequent research on neurohormones and silk composition was acknowledged by the Japanese Government Award for Foreign Specialists in 1987.

The fall of communism opened the door to a professorship at the University of South Bohemia (Czech Republic). He served one term as University Vice-Rector. In 1995 he became the Director of the Entomological Institute, and in 2007 was named Director of the Biology Center of the Czech Academy of Sciences. His research interests were extended to oxidative stress, circadian rhythms, environmental impact of genetically modified crops, and nature conservation. He has mentored 17 Ph.D. students, published 20 patents and more than 250 papers, is currently on the editorial boards of seven journals, plays important roles in international scientific life, and is currently serving as the Chair of the Council for the next International Congress of Entomology in Durban, South Africa.

Dr. Nan-Yao Su is recognized internationally as an authority on termites and is known for his innovative approach for their population management. He authored and coauthored over 160 peer-reviewed articles on termite biology and control. His research results on the population ecology of subterranean termites and slow-acting toxicants led to the development of a monitoring-baiting system for population control of these cryptic pests. Commercialized as the Sentricon System, it has been marketed in 18 countries since 1995 to protect over two million homes, and has reduced pesticide use by > 6,000 metric tons. The system has also been used widely in historic monuments such as the Statue of Liberty National Monument, San Cristobal and El Morro, Puerto Rico, and Ft. Christiansvaern, U.S. Virgin Islands.

He has served as a consultant for the Hong Kong government to draft guidelines for termite control, as an advisory member for the Termite Forum of the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry, New Zealand, and is currently the chief technical advisor for the Chinese EPA in their efforts to eliminate persistent organic pollutants (POPs) for termite control in China. Dr. Su received his B.Sc. and M.Sc. from the Kyoto Institute of Technology, Japan, and his Ph.D. in entomology from the University of Hawaii. He joined the University of Florida in 1984, and has been a professor of entomology since 1994.

Dr. Bruce Tabashnik’s research focuses on insect resistance to transgenic crops and insecticides. Applying evolutionary and ecological principles to improve pest management is a common theme in his work. His research team discovered diamondback moth resistance to Bt sprays in Hawaii, which is the first documented case of field-evolved resistance to Bt toxins. After 13 years on the faculty in the Department of Entomology at the University of Hawaii, he moved to the University of Arizona in 1996. He is one of the leaders of a collaborative team in Arizona that addresses molecular, genetic, ecological, and practical aspects of resistance. Because of this comprehensive approach, Arizona’s resistance management team is considered the strongest program of its kind in the world.

Bruce has served as Head of the Department of Entomology at the University of Arizona since 1996. Under his leadership, the department has enhanced its outstanding reputation in research and extension, while boosting graduate and undergraduate education. Entomology at the University of Arizona was recently ranked number two in a national survey of faculty scholarly productivity.

Tabashnik received his Ph.D. in biological sciences (1981) from Stanford University and his B.S. in zoology (1975) at the University of Michigan. His awards include the J.E. Bussart Memorial Award (1992) from the ESA. The Science Citation Index lists more than 5,000 citations of his 235 publications.

Dr. Kenneth V. Yeargan is recognized for his outstanding contributions in research, teaching, and service to the profession. His research has emphasized the ecology and behavior of carnivorous arthropods, biological control, and IPM. He is an internationally recognized authority on bolas spiders, predators that attract their moth prey by duping them into responding to a pheromone mimic. He has published more than 115 refereed journal articles and several book chapters. Yeargan, who has been on the entomology faculty at the University of Kentucky since 1974, holds a B.S. degree in zoology from Auburn University and a Ph.D. degree in entomology from the University of California, Davis. He has received several awards for mentoring graduate students and teaching, including the ESA’s Distinguished Achievement in Teaching Award. Overall, he has served on the formal advisory committees of more than 100 graduate students and currently serves as Director of Graduate Studies for his department.

Yeargan has served the ESA as Secretary, Chair-Elect, and Chair of Section C. He served on the Program Committee for the Annual Meeting five times and was Program Chair in 1987. That year he was the first to use a database management system to construct the meeting program. He also produced and distributed in the registration packets for the 1987 Annual Meeting the first subject index for the program.

Founded in 1889, ESA is a non-profit organization committed to serving the scientific and professional needs of more than 5,700 entomologists and individuals in related disciplines. ESA's membership includes representatives from educational institutions, government, health agencies, and private industry. For more information, visit http://www.entsoc.org or write to sro@entsoc.org.