 |
| Walter Leal |
It was not for athletic prowess, but for scholarly achievements — the scientific equivalent of an international gold medal.
Leal, a chemical ecologist and professor and former chair of the UC Davis Department of Entomology, is the recipient of the coveted Silver Medal, the highest award given by the International Society of Chemical Ecology (ISCE).
Leal, who researches how insects detect smells and communicate within their species, is "one of the foremost authorities on the integration of chemical ecology with the molecular, biochemical and physiological interactions among insects and between insects and plants," said chemical ecologist Coby Schal, professor at North Carolina State University, who nominated him for the award.
Bruce Hammock, UC Davis distinguished professor of entomology, who wrote a letter of support, praised Leal for "his outstanding career achievements and excellence in moving chemical ecology forward" and described him as "a world-renowned chemical ecologist, a pioneer in the field of insect olfaction, and on the cutting edge of research."
President Paulo H.G. Zarvin of the Federal University of Parana, Brazil, announced the award Thursday (July 26) at the 28th annual ISCE annual meeting, held in Lithuania. It will be presented at the ISCE's 29th annual meeting, Aug. 19-22, 2013, in Melbourne, Australia.
Declaring Leal's program, launched in 1990, "one of the best in the world," Schal lauded Leal as "one of the most energetic and collaborative scientists I know."
"Chemical signaling is fundamental to all life forms, including microbes, plants and animals," Schal said," and chemical cues allow animals to appraise their environment; to detect food, toxins, prey, predators and pathogens; to identify kin; and to evaluate and base mate choice decisions of potential reproductive partners."
"Walter's research, in two decades, has addressed almost every aspect of chemical ecology," Schal said. That includes "the semiochemistry of mites, thrips, scarabs, bugs, aphids, cockroaches, moths, wasps and plants."
Leal, who joined the UC Davis faculty in 2000, is known for his innovative and creative studies on how insects detect smells, communicate with their species, detect host and non-host plants and detect their prey, all of which, are crucial to agriculture and medical entomology, said Hammock.
Throughout his career, Leal has designed and synthesized complex pheromones from many insects, including scarab beetles, true bugs, longhorn beetles and the citrus leafminer. In a Rosetta stone-like task, he used a multidisciplinary approach, supported by molecular basis of insect olfaction to identify the complex sex pheromone system of the naval orangeworm, a key agricultural pest responsible for multi-million crop damage annually in California. The sex pheromones he discovered are now being deployed in the agricultural field to disrupt chemical communication and control the navel orangeworm population through the environmentally friendly technique of "mating disruption."
Thinking outside the scientific box and using state-of-the-art analytical techniques with sensory physiology and behavioral studies, Leal and his lab discovered DEET's mode of action, something that had puzzled and eluded scientists for half a century. The chemical insect repellent, patented by the U.S. Army in 1946, is considered the "gold standard" of insect repellents worldwide; more than 200 million use DEET to ward off vectorborne diseases. Scientists long surmised that DEET works by masking smell of the host, or jamming the insect's senses, interfering with its ability to locate a host. Not so: in groundbreaking research, the Leal lab found that mosquitoes can indeed smell the chemical repellent but they dislike it so intensely that they avoid it. This work, published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), drew international attention.
Leal has authored more than 160 research publications in the general field of insect pheromones, insect chemical communication and insect olfaction. His work is widely cited; the Web of Science currently indicates nearly 3000 citations.
Under his tenure as chair of the UC Davis Department of Entomology (2006–08), the Chronicle of Higher Education ranked the department No. 1 in the country.
Active in scientific organizations at the national and international levels, Leal is a past president of ISCE, and a fellow of the Entomological Society of America (ESA), the American Association for the Advancement of Science, and the Royal Entomological Society.
ESA named him the 2011 recipient of the $25,000 Nan-Yao Su Award for Innovation and Creativity in Entomology and the 2008 Recognition Award in Insect Physiology, Biochemistry, and Toxicology. Leal's other major awards include ISCE's 2007 Silverstein-Simeone Award; and the highest medals of honor from the Entomological Society of Brazil and the Japanese Society of Applied Entomology and Zoology.
Educated in Brazil and Japan and a former chemical engineer in his native Brazil, Leal received his master's degree in agricultural chemistry from Mie University, Japan and his doctorate in applied biochemistry from the University of Tsukuba, Japan.
Leal is one of only 23 scientists to receive the ISCE Silver Medal since its inception in 1986. Two other University of California scientists have received the award: Dave Wood of UC Berkeley in 2001 and Ring Carde of UC Riverside in 2009.
In addition to Hammock, those writing letters of support John Hildebrand, University of Arizona; Karl-Ernst Kaissling of the Max Planck Institute for Ornithology, Germany; John Pickett, University of Nottingham, UK; and Wendell Roelofs, Cornell University.