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Murray Isman |
DAVIS---Murray Isman, a noted expert on botanical insecticides, will deliver the Thomas and Nina Leigh Distinguished Alumni Seminar in Entomology on Wednesday night, Oct. 27 in the Activities and Recreation Center (ARC) at UC Davis.
Isman, dean of Land and Food Systems and professor of applied biology (entomology/toxicology) at the University of British Columbia, will speak on "Aromatherapy for Pest Management? Pesticides Based on Plant Essential Oils for Agriculture, Industry and as Consumer Products" at 5 p.m. in the ARC Ballroom. A social hour is set for 4 p.m., and a buffet dinner at 6 p.m. in the ARC.
His lecture, free and open to the public, will be webcast live and then archived on the UC Davis Department of entomology website. Reservations are required for the buffet dinner. Faculty, alumni, students and other friends of entomology may make reservations for the buffet dinner with entomology student coordinator Carol Nickles at cnickles@ucdavis.edu or (530) 754-8638 by Sunday, Oct. 24.
Isman will introduced by Michael Parrella, professor and chair of the UC Davis Department of Entomology. Isman received his doctorate in entomology from UC Davis in 1981 and holds bachelor’s and master’s degrees in zoology from the University of British Columbia.
Isman and his research team develop insecticides, miticides, fungicides and herbicides using various plant essential oils as the active ingredients. EcoSMART Technologies (Alpharetta, GA) sells products of this type for the agricultural, industrial and consumer markets in the United States. “We are developing improved agricultural pesticides through enhanced formulations and in mixture with other botanical products,” Isman said.
Collaborating with university and industrial partners, the Isman team previously investigated the development of botanical insecticides derived from the Indian neem tree (Azadirachta indica), from medicinal plants and timber species of southeast Asia and Central America, and from tall oil, a byproduct of the temperate zone pulp and paper industry.
The Isman team also investigates the behavioral and physiological effects of plant defensive chemicals in insects. “We have investigated the effects of mixtures of plant chemicals on insect feeding and on the development of resistance to botanical insecticides,” Isman said. “Studies have characterized habituation to feeding deterrents in caterpillars, the metabolism of plant defensive chemicals by herbivorous insects, and the pharmacokinetics and fate of plant chemicals in insects.”
Isman and his researchers are also developing non-toxic crop protection chemicals that mimic naturally occurring bioactive odorants and tastants, and that are relatively easily prepared from commodity chemicals. “Because host plant detection is essential to the larval and adult stages of moth species consequently leading to crop damage,” he said, “we are targeting this chemical communication system with aromatic odorants that interfere with larval feeding or the oviposition behavior of adult moths, without causing toxic effects to the insects (in collaboration with professor Erika Plettner of Simon Fraser University, British Columbia).
The seminar memorializes cotton entomologist Thomas Frances Leigh (1923-1993) and his wife Nina Eremin Leigh (1929-2002). Tom Leigh was an international authority on the biology, ecology and management of arthropod pests affecting cotton production. During his 37-year UC Davis career, he was based at the Kern County Shafter Research and Extension Center, also known as the U.S. Cotton Research Station. He researched pest and beneficial arthropod management in cotton fields, and host plant resistance in cotton to insects, mites, nematodes and diseases.
A member of the UC Davis Department of Entomology faculty from 1958, Leigh retired in 1991, but remained active in his research and collaboration until his death on Oct. 26, 1993. He was a past president of the Pacific Branch of the Entomological Society of America (ESA), which awarded him the C. F. Woodworth Award for outstanding service to entomology in 1991. Charles W. Woodworth (1865-1940) founded the Entomology Division of the University of California, Berkeley, and is considered the founder of the UC Davis Department of Entomology.
At UC Davis, Leigh received the James H. Meyer Recognition Award for Distinguished Achievement Service Award in 1988. He was active in the American Association for the Advancement of Science and was the founding president of the San Joaquin Entomology Association. He also served on the ESA Governing Board and was a founding member and past president of the American Registry of Professional Entomologists (ARPE). In 1981 he received the ARPE Outstanding Entomologist Award.
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(Editor's Note: ARC is located near the corner of LaRue Road and Orchard Road. See campus map.)
--Kathy Keatley Garvey
Communications specialist
UC Davis Department of Entomology
(530) 754-6894
