Walter Leal's Research on Insects' Sense of Smell Leads to Worldwide Honor
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Walter Leal (left) with nominee John Hildebrand and American Association for Advancement of Science Fellow award.
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DAVIS—Walter Leal’s two decades of distinguished research on how insects smell, has led to a worldwide honor: the American Association for the Advancement of Science’s fellow award.
Leal, a professor of entomology at UC Davis and a past president of the International Society of Chemical Ecology, has studied the chemical ecology and biochemistry of insects since the early 1980s.
He received the award last month at the society’s conference in St. Louis, MO. The world’s largest scientific society, AAAS promotes the understanding of science through education, collaboration and cooperation, and publishes the peer-reviewed academic journal, Science.
Nominating Leal for the award were entomology professors John Hildebrand of the University of Arizona and James Carey of UC Davis and Robert Page, director of the School of Life Sciences at Arizona State University and former chair of the UC Davis Department of Entomology.
Hildebrand described Leal as “an international leader in entomology and one of the top chemical ecologists in the world.”
“UC Davis achieved a coup when it attracted Dr. Leal to its faculty in 2000,” Hildebrand said, adding that that Leal’s “exceptional abilities and promise benefit the students and research enterprise of UC Davis as well as the entomological and chemical-ecological communities in the United States.”
Carey pointed out that Leal is “one of the most gifted scientists I know—intelligent, disciplined, creative and motivated.”
“Young scientists seek him, funding agencies support him, honorific committees award him prestigious prizes and honors, UC Davis hired him, scholars respect him and his colleagues befriend him,” Carey said.
Leal received his bachelor’s degree in chemical engineering in his native Brazil and advanced degrees from universities in Japan: his master’s degree in agricultural chemistry from Mie University, and his doctorate in applied biochemistry from the University of Tsukuba.
Before joining the UC Davis faculty from Japan, Leal served as research leader of the Science and Technology Agency of Japan and the Bio-Oriented Technology Research Advancement Institute (BRAIN) and head of the Laboratory of Chemical Prospecting at the National Institute of Sericultural and Entomological Sciences in Tsukuba.
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| Fellow award (left) and rosette |
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Leal is best known for his research on the identification and synthesis of insect sex heromones and on the chemical ecology and chemical communication of insects and potential applications for pest control, Hildebrand said.
Explaining his work, Leal said that insects smell through their antennae. Odorant-binding proteins pick up the scents and carry them across a water barrier to the sensory cells, where they are released. Leal examines the molecular structure of the odorant-binding proteins to find the compounds that pick up the scents.
Leal’s research, Hildebrand said, has practical implications in explaining how insects communicate within species, how they detect host and non-host plants, and how insect parasites detect their prey.
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