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| World-renowed chemical ecologist Wittko Francke of the University of Hamburg, Germany, will speak on "Insect Semiochemicals: Structural Principles and Evolution" from 12:10 to 1 p.m. , Wednesday, Dec. 8 in 122 Briggs Hall. |
DAVIS--World-renowned organic chemist Wittko Francke of the University of Hamburg, Germany, will speak on "Insect Semiochemicals: Structural Principles and Evolution" at the UC Davis Department of Entomology seminar on Wednesday, Dec. 8.
His talk is set for 12:10 to 1 p.m. in 122 Briggs Hall. Host is chemical ecologist Steve Seybold of the USDA Forest Service, Pacific Southwest Research Station, Davis, and an affiliate of the UC Davis Department of Entomology.
"Professor Francke has been a driving force in the field of chemical ecology for the last four decades, discovering countless new natural product chemicals of behavioral significance for animals and helping us to understand how plants and animals interact," Seybold said.
"Nearly everyone in the field has collaborated with him at some level; he has been a consummate mentor to younger chemical ecologists and has always been generous with his time, intellect, and chemical skills to everyone in that community," Seybold said. "He is remarkably brilliant in that he sees patterns in the make-up and synthesis of bio-organic compounds that most biologists, and even many chemists, may overlook."
Said chemical ecologist Walter Leal, professor and former chair of the UC Davis Department of Entomology: "He is a passionate ambassador of chemical ecology and one of his kind. It is a privilege to host him in Davis.”
Francke’s talk, open to the public, will be webcast live and then archived a on the Department of Entomology's website. This is the last in the series of the department’s fall seminars.
Molecular recognition is a prerequisite to the beginning of life, Francke says, and therefore, “chemical signalling” is the oldest means for the transmission of information.
“Principles of chemical signaling may have evolved several times and for different reasons. Typical elements are represented by a broad spectrum of secondary metabolites originating from the ubiquitous streams of classic catabolism or metabolism.”
“As a result,” Francke says, “striking similarities are found among molecular structures of semiochemicals that point to general concepts in the establishment of ‘chemical languages’-- and the development of appropriate receptor systems.”
His major research interests concern specific aspects of chemical ecology:
1. Which chemical compounds are used by living beings to exchange and specify information?
2. Do components of chemical signals show structural relationships or congruency on an
evolutionary background, that is, is there a certain “etymology in chemical communication”?
Francke’s investigations are interdisciplinary and international, with results published in more than 370 research papers.
Internationally recognized, Francke has received a number of prestigious awards, including the Karl Escherich Medal of the Germany Society of Pure and Applied Entomology; the Otto Wallach Medal of the German Chemical Society; and the honorary medal of the International Society of Chemical Ecology.
Francke, was born in Reinbek, Germany in 1940 to a scientific family. "His mother, Helene Francke-Grosmann, was a noted German entomologist in the 1950s and 1960s who studied insect-fungal symbiosis in wood-destroying insects, so Francke himself learned to appreciate biology and traveled in the scientific community at a very young age," Seybold said..
Francke earned his doctorate in organic chemistry from the University of Hamburg in 1973. He served as director of the university’s Institute of Organic Chemistry from 1992-1994 and again from 2004 to 2006. He also served as dean of the chemistry department from 1994 to 1999, and dean of study of the chemistry department from 2003-2006.
His academia activities include past president of the International Society of Chemical Ecology; past chair of the Young Europeans Environmental Research Jury (YEER-Jury); past chair of the Association of German Organic Chemists; and past chair of the Scientific Board of the German Governmental Research Center.
In addition, Francke has served on the advisory board of the Max Planck Institute of Chemical Ecology since 1998; as a board member and editor-in-chief of Chemoecology since 1998; a board member of the Journal of Chemical Ecology since 1989; and on the board of the European Journal of Organic Chemistry from 1991-2004.
Related links:
Wasps and sexual baiting (quote by Wittko Francke)
Science Daily: New Orchid Deception Found: Wearing the Scent of Hornet's Prey
--Kathy Keatley Garvey
Communications specialist
UC Davis Department of Entomology
(530) 754-6894
