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2004 Distinguished Scientist Award

Dr. Marjorie Hoy was awarded the IOBC-NRS’s Distinguished Scientist Award for 2004. Rick Roush, University of California Statewide IPM Program, Davis made the following presentation:

It is my great pleasure to introduce Marjorie Hoy and briefly describe why she is so deserving of the IOBC’s Distinguished Scientist Award in Biological Control. Through creativity, hard work and tenacity, Professor Hoy has contributed enormously to biological control, and in very diverse ways, ranging from classical biological control to pesticide research to genetic engineering. In fact, as one reviews Marjorie’s career, it seems hard to believe that all of this was done by one person.

Professor Hoy began her career with an A.B. in Zoology and Entomology at the University of Kansas, and then followed this with an M.S. and Ph.D. in Entomology and Biological Control at the University of California, Berkeley, finishing in1972. Marjorie went on to positions as a Research Entomologist with the Connecticut Agricultural Experiment Station and then the U.S. Forest Service in Hamden, Connecticut, returning to UC Berkeley in 1976 as an assistant professor, where I met Marjorie and became her first graduate student. Marjorie advanced through the ranks to Professor in 1982, and in 1992 moved to the Department of Entomology and Nematology at University of Florida as Eminent Scholar and Davies, Fischer and Eckes Professor of Biological Control.

Professor Hoy has been very active in several professional societies and distinguished panels, including the Entomological Society of America , the Acarology Society of America and Genetics Society of America and, of course, the International Organization for Biological Control. Recently, Marjorie was a member of a National Academy of Sciences committee on Biological Threats to Agricultural Plants and Animals (March 2001- 2002), which reviewed the status of US agriculture's ability to deter, detect and respond to bioterrorism. Marjorie has also served as Member-at-Large for the Governing Council and Governing Board of the American Institute of Biological Sciences. She has served as an Editorial Board Member for several journals, including the Journal of Alternative Agriculture; Biocontrol Science and Technology; Biological Control, Theory and Application in Pest Management; Experimental and Applied Acarology; the International Journal of Acarology; and Environmental Biosafety Research.

Somehow along the way, Professor Hoy has managed to publish at least 280 publications, including five edited and one single-authored book, Insect Molecular Genetics. Marjorie has supervised at least a dozen PhD students that I know about, and probably more, and has taught courses ranging from Acarology to Insect Molecular Genetics.

Marjorie’s honors are too numerous for me to list completely, but include Phi Beta Kappa; the J. E. Bussart Award in Economic Entomology in 1985 and Founders Memorial Award in 1992 (both from the Entomological Society of America); and recognition as a Fellow by the Royal Entomological Society of London, the American Association for the Advancement of Science, AND the Entomological Society of America. She has been recognized in “Who's Who in America, American Men and Women of Science” and “Who's Who in Science &Engineering.” Marjorie has been particularly recognized for her work in biological control, including with a U.S. Department of Agriculture Honor Award in 1997. She has been widely lauded in Florida for her exceptional contributions in biological control of the citrus leafminer .

But all of this just gives an overview of Marjorie’s contributions. To prepare this talk, I solicited thoughts from other former graduate students, and the common theme of their replies was Marjorie’s tenacity and a fearless refusal to believe that something couldn't be done. She enjoys, even relishes, a good challenge . Another theme was Marjorie’s energetic pursuit of solutions to practical problems in agriculture. A few examples may help illustrate these traits.

While working on biological control of gypsy moth in Connecticut in the 1970’s, Marjorie was faced with the problem that the gypsy moth had an obligate diapause, so it was hard to work with the parasitoids all year around. Some of us might have seen the break as a blessing and time to write papers, but Marjorie simply decided to select for a non-diapausing strain of the gypsy moth, work that is a classic in the selection of threshold traits and subsequent analysis of the underlying genetics.

It may be hard to imagine now, but in the 1970s, it was widely and often aggressively argued that genetic improvement of natural enemies, especially selecting for resistance in beneficial species, was both impossible and a waste of time. “Predators and parasites don’t have the capability for resistance, and if it is going to happen, why won’t it happen in nature anyway?”, it was often claimed. These arguments now seem odd and dated essentially only because Marjorie was confident and undeterred, and tried anyway, including supervising several of us (including myself, Ross Field, Beth Grafton-Cardwell, Jay Rosenheim and Mike Caprio) in the 1970s and 1980s in demonstrating that genetic improvement was possible for natural enemies. It was also argued that pesticide resistant natural enemies would only encourage increased pesticide use, but Marjorie pioneered such impact assessment, including with agricultural economists, which found that pesticide resistant natural enemies reduced pesticide use and costs to growers. Along the way, Marjorie published on everything from the toxicology of pesticides for natural enemies to the fundamental ecology, genetics and diseases of natural enemies.

As pointed out to me by Jay Rosenheim, the most dramatic example of Marjorie’s fearlessness for starting new research was when Marjorie decided, around 1984, that she needed to learn molecular biology to develop pesticide-resistant natural enemies through transgenic approaches. By 1992, Marjorie was already developing her own genetically transformed predatory mites by microinjection. Her basic approach to learning was to (1) teach a graduate-level class on insect molecular genetics, and then (2) write a textbook, which she published in 1994 as the first edition of Insect Molecular Genetics. As Jay wrote, “Now, that's a way to learn a new topic! Yes, she did take a couple of classes and, obviously, did do a bunch of reading, but Marjorie basically taught herself by writing the text. Sheesh!”

Marjorie is also a tough taskmaster and has never suffered fools gladly (it’s been said that her diplomacy skills will never land her a position at the UN!). She was perhaps the only faculty member in Berkeley who routinely got her students finished in 4 years. On the other hand, Marjorie was highly sought after for advice by graduate students throughout the department at Berkeley, and was widely appreciated for being supportive and giving good advice to young scientists. I consider myself lucky to be among the scientists that Marjorie encouraged.

Let’s see now, Professor Marjorie Hoy is an acarologist, a classical geneticist, a decorated classical biocontrol researcher, a pesticide toxicologist and genetic engineer, ecologist, teacher, mentor, text book author, editor, a contributor to professional societies and US preparedness for bioterrorism, and, by the way, a wife and mother who fishes, kayaks, and reads novels in her spare time! As I said at the beginning of my remarks, it seems hard to believe that all of this was done by one person, and I still have to wonder if Marjorie has a twin or has cloned herself! Will the real Marjorie Hoy please stand up, and come forward to be recognized by her friends and peers?

2003 Distinguished Scientist Award

Dr. Robert "Bob" Luck was the recipient of the  2003. He was honored for his achievements in biological control in a ceremony during the IOBC-NRS annual meeting held with the Entomological Society of America meeting in Cincinnati, Ohio in October 2003.

Bob started his work in entomology through his interest in forestry. After doing a tour of duty in the navy from 1966-68 he started working on his PhD at UC Berkeley. During that time the Berkeley faculty consisted of such biocontrol greats as Huffaker, van den Bosch, Hagen and Dahlsten. Dahlsten was Bob’s major professor. During his PhD research he studied the control of the pine needle scale. These scales had become an upset pest following area-wide sprays with malathion against mosquitoes.

After he finished his PhD in 1973 he applied for a series of positions in Forestry, but was told in no uncertain terms by van den Bosch that he should take the position in the department of Biological Control in Riverside. Upon his arrival there Bob initiated work on the biological control of the elm leaf beetle, and eventually got involved with the biological control of the citrus red scale (CRS). This territory has been occupied for a long time by Paul DeBach. Bob became very interested in the reasons why the successful parasitoid Aphytis lignanensis was replaced by the parasitoid Aphytis melinus. The reasons for this displacement were found through detailed studies of the oviposition and sex allocation of the parasitoids, work done in cooperation with the student Sue Opp. A. melinus appeared to be able to produce daughters on smaller scales than A. lignanensis, eventually leading to the displacement of A. lignanensis. To study the dynamics of the interaction between the CRS and Aphytis melinus, a large-scale, multi-year study was initiated, in which the density of both CRS and the parasitoids was monitored. This work was done together with the PhD student Dicky Yu who designed a large portion of the software used for databasing and analyzing this information, and also with Bob’s long time research associate Lisa Forster. The population dynamic aspects of the interaction were analyzed together with Bill Murdoch from UC-Santa Barbara.

During that time Bob also became interested in the importance of genetic variation in the mass Below selected publications:

Huigens, M. E., R. F. Luck, R. H. F. Klassen, M. F. P. M. Mass, M. J. T. N. Timermans, and R. Stouthamer. 2000. Infectious Parthenogenesis. Nature 405: 178-179.

2002 Distinguished Scientists Awards

Drs. Maurice and Catherine Tauber, of Cornell University, were co-recipients of the IOBC-NRS’s Distinguished Scientist Award for 2002. They were honored simultaneously for their collective achievements, in a ceremony during the Annual Meeting of the Entomological Society of America, at Ft. Lauderdale, FL in November 2002.

The Taubers’ research focuses on the evolution of seasonal cycles in insects, speciation, and the comparative biology and systematics of natural enemies. Their book, Seasonal Adaptations of Insects (Tauber, Tauber & Masaki) which had been out of print, has been reissued by Oxford University Press.

Kady received her PhD from the University of California at Berkeley in 1967. She then accepted a NIH Postdoctoral Fellowship at Cornell University and since 1967 has been a Senior Research Associate there. Her areas of expertise include systematics and evolution of Neuroptera, evolutionary biology, speciation, and insect seasonality. She has been an active member of the Entomological Society of America, serving four terms on the Publications Council.

Maurice received his PhD from the University of California at Berkeley in 1966. He accepted a position as an Assistant Professor of Entomology at Cornell in the same year. He achieved the rank of Professor in 1978, served as Dept. Chair from 1981 to 1986, and was named a Graduate School Professor at Cornell in 2000. He recently retired from Cornell University. His areas of expertise include biological control, insect seasonality, and comparative biology and behavior of predators and parasitoids. Maurice has served on the Governing Boards of the ESA and IOBC-NRS, and on numerous Editorial Boards. He is a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, and of the Entomological Society of Canada.

Starting in 1965, these two individuals with independent research expertise and interests, have collaborated on over 150 publications, including 9 papers in Nature and Science and two Annual Review articles. Throughout their careers, the Taubers have asked good fundamental research questions and then used this knowledge in biological control.

Research by the Taubers has been influential in numerous aspects of biological control including suppression of both insect pests and weeds. Their studies on optimal storage conditions for predators provide information needed to develop inundative and augmentative release programs using chrysopids and other predators. Even more pivotal is their work on the biology of predators, which is essential in the design of successful programs to import, release and establish natural enemies. Specifically, their studies have provided new insights into the role of behavior in the evolution of prey specificity. Comparative ecophysiological field studies have been combined with detailed behavioral observations in greenhouse and laboratory conditions to examine the mechanisms involved in prey specialization. These results have elucidated a pathway for the evolution of prey specialization, as well as provided critical practical information for the use of predatory species in biological control.

The most comprehensive studies of the ecological and genetic variability among populations of any predatory species have been conducted by Maurice and Kady Tauber. Their studies have focused on lacewings in the Chrysoperla carnea species complex, a taxon that includes species which are commercially mass reared and released in numerous agricultural systems. The Taubers’ studies have identified the variation in seasonal life cycles, habitat associations, and life-cycle traits, and the ecophysiological and genetic bases of this variation. Their work has resulted in several species descriptions, and the development of widely used keys and manuals for identifying larval stages of predacious Neuroptera.

— Submitted by John J. Obrycki, Dept. of Entomology, Iowa State Univ., who wishes to thank Prof. Jeffrey Scott, Dept. of Ent., Cornell Univ., for assistance with material used in this article.

2001 Distinguished Scientist Award

Dr. Jim McMurtry, Professor Emeritus at University of California-Riverside, was the recipient of the IOBC-NRS’s Distinguished Scientist Award for 2001. Jim and his wife Mary traveled from their home near Bend, OR to accept the award at the annual meeting of the IOBC-NRS, held in conjunction with the Entomological Society of America National meetings in San Diego, CA in early December. Past IOBC-NRS President Larry Charlet introduced Jim with the following comments:

Jim received his Ph.D. from UC-Davis in 1960 working on host plant resistance to spotted alfalfa aphid, then was hired at UCR to direct a project on biological control of mites. He has worked on mites ever since (even past retirement), concentrating on mites of citrus and avocado, but also cooperating on programs on strawberry, walnut and pines. Throughout his career Jim directed 15 students from the U.S., Canada, Brazil, Venezuela, Egypt, Guatemala, Morocco and Iran, including current IOBC-NRS President Dan Mahr and Past President Larry Charlet. He and his graduate students conducted long-term studies on population dynamics of mites and natural enemies, field studies to understand the roles of natural enemies and other biotic factors in population regulation, and laboratory studies to elucidate the biology and predatory behavior of many species of phytoseiid mites.

Over a 30 year period Jim conducted foreign exploration for natural enemies of mites throughout the world: the Mediterranean; Mexico; Central and South America; North, East and Southern Africa; and Australia. He has published over 140 papers, taught courses on general and agricultural acarology, and has served on the editorial board of International Journal of Acarology, Experimental and Applied Acarology, and Acarologia.

Some of his accomplishments in the area of mite biological control include:

Because the need was great (and as he put it, "it was also fun") Jim became involved in taxonomy and biosystematics of the Phytoseiidae. He is currently working with Don Chant on a taxonomic revision of the subfamily Amblyseiinae. The revision of the family Phytoseiidae has been a 10-year project, and they are "finally seeing some light at the end of the tunnel." Jim has continued helping colleagues from California, Oregon, Mexico, Poland, Iran, Costa Rica, and Brazil on identification of specimens. He is also working with Brian Croft on hypotheses of categorizing generalist and specialist (and intermediates) phytoseiid mites based on various traits — in his spare time!

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