Wendell L. Roelofs: The Entomologist Who Wasn’t

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Wendell L. Roelofs is Liberty Hyde Bailey Professor Emeritus of Insect Biochemistry at Cornell University and is internationally recognized for his pioneering research on insect pheromones. He earned a B.A. (Chemistry, 1960) from Central College in Pella, Iowa, and a Ph.D. (Organic Chemistry, 1964) from Indiana University. After a short stint at Massachusetts Institute of Technology on a National Institutes of Health chemistry fellowship, Roelofs was hired in 1964 as an Assistant Professor in the Department of Entomology at Cornell University—and he had no experience with insects. Eighteen years later, at the age of 45, Roelofs was awarded the National Medal of Science by President Ronald Reagan “for his fundamental contributions to basic and applied biology in the field of insect pheromones, their chemical composition and blends, their biosynthesis, how insects perceive and respond to them, and their use in insect pest management.”

Roelofs was the first chemist to join the Department of Entomology at Cornell University. He and his team successfully forged together the disciplines of chemistry and entomology, and they were among the early pioneers to characterize insect sex pheromone structures. Using innovative techniques such as electroantennogram detection, wind tunnel behavioral analysis, gas chromatography, and solid phase micro-extraction, they made major breakthroughs in the chemical identification and biosynthesis of insect pheromones and their components. His team has identified the pheromone blends of more than 70 major agricultural pests, including moths, beetles, cockroaches, and scales. Never one to be constrained by convention, he also identified the pheromone of the Asian elephant. Roelofs has been instrumental in many basic behavioral, physiological, and biochemical advances in insect chemical communication, which led to the development of sex pheromone lures for use in monitoring traps and mating disruption.