OSU Entomologist will address summer graduates

David Denlinger, Distinguished University Professor in the Department of Entomology at The Ohio State University, has been selected to speak at Ohio State's summer quarter commencement. About 1,900 students will receive degrees during the ceremony, which takes place at 1 p.m. on Sunday, August 24, at the Jerome Schottenstein Center.
Graduates and guests can find complete information on the ceremony at http://www.osu.edu/commence/.

A member of Ohio State's faculty since 1976, Denlinger is regarded as one of the world's leading environmental insect physiologists. He has earned international recognition for his contributions to entomology and their application to agriculture, the environment and human health.

Denlinger's 30-year quest to understand what causes insects to survive harsh weather and go into dormancy, or diapause, has taken him to some of the most extreme climates on earth.

Denlinger most often studies flesh flies and gypsy moths. He has also studied the mosquito species that carries the West Nile virus and the blood-sucking African tsetse fly, which carries sleeping sickness to humans and cattle. He has traveled to Antarctica to collect midges to study how they survive despite being frozen in ice for nearly 11 months of the year.

A native of Pennsylvania, Denlinger earned his bachelor's degree in zoology from Pennsylvania State University in 1967, and his doctorate in entomology from the University of Illinois in 1971.

He 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 premier scientific society in the United States.

Other awards include the Recognition Award in Insect Physiology, the Founder's Memorial Award and the C. V. Riley Achievement Award, all from the Entomological Society of America. He is a Fellow of that society, as well as the Royal Entomological Society and the American Association for the Advancement of Science. Additionally, Denlinger serves on six editorial boards, and has been the editor of the "Journal of Insect Physiology" since 1993.

He 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 also has won Ohio State's Distinguished Scholar award.

Before joining the Ohio State faculty, he served as a research scientist for the International Centre of Insect Physiology and Ecology in Nairobi, Kenya, and a research associate at Harvard University.

He is the author of more than 200 publications and recipient of nearly 30 research grants.