Distinguished University Professor Addresses Summer Graduates
Entomologist David Denlinger, Distinguished University Professor, Ohio State University, has been selected to speak at Ohio State’s summer quarter commencement on August 24 at the Schottenstein Center.
David Denlinger, Summer 2008 Commencement Speaker
A member of Ohio State’s faculty since 1976, Denlinger is regarded as one of the world’s leading insect physiologists. He has earned international recognition for his research and its implications for agriculture, the environment and human health.
His 30-year quest to understand how the process of diapause, or dormancy, allows insects to survive harsh weather has taken Denlinger to some of the most extreme climates on earth.
Denlinger studies a variety of insects, including flesh flies and gypsy moths, the mosquito species that carries West Nile virus and the blood-sucking African tsetse fly that carries sleeping sickness. Recently, he has focused on the only insect to live in Antarctica, a midge that survives despite being frozen in ice for nearly 11 months of the year.
Denlinger is the recipient of numerous awards, including the National Science Foundation’s Antarctica Service Medal and the Gregor Mendel Medal, presented by the Czech Academy of Sciences. In 2004, he was elected to the National Academy of Sciences, the highest honor for a United States scientist.
Denlinger served as chair of Ohio State’s Department of Entomology for more than 10 years and in 2005 was designated a Distinguished University Professor, the highest honor bestowed on faculty. He is also a recipient of Ohio State’s Distinguished Scholar Award.
He is the author of more than 200 publications, recipient of nearly 30 research grants, serves on six editorial boards and has been the editor of the Journal of Insect Physiology since 1993.
Before coming to Ohio State, he was a research scientist for the International Centre of Insect Physiology and Ecology in Nairobi, Kenya, and a research associate at Harvard University.
Originally published Summer 2008
