Vincent Dethier

Dr. Vincent Gaston Dethier (1915-1993) was a prominent insect physiologist and research entomologist from the United States. Dr. Dethier, an expert in his field, studied a wide variety of insects, wrote over 170 scientific papers and 15 scientific books, and has an award named in his honour, the Vincent G. Dethier Award. In addition to the pleasure he got from his research and writing, Dr. Dethier was also an artist; he illustrated many of his early papers, and he loved music. His weekly recorder quartets were a great joy to him.

Biography

Dr. Dethier was raised in a suburb of Boston and was both an undergraduate and a graduate student at Harvard University, graduating with a Ph.D. in 1939. Immediately after graduating he was hired by John Carroll University in Cleveland Ohio where he stayed until he was drafted into the army in 1941. Despite his duties in the Army Air Corps in the Africa-Middle East theater Dr. Dethier still carried on an active research program publishing at least 16 papers. Towards the end of the war Dr. Dethier collaborated with Leigh Chadwick at Edgewood Arsenal in Maryland in a long series of experiments which analyzed the behavioral effects of many families of chemicals on the chemoreceptors of flies and so he began to define the molecular nature of the taste receptors. Following the war he taught briefly at Ohio State University and then at The Johns Hopkins University. There he had a joint appointment in the Zoology and Psychology Departments which he found to be very fruitful. He stayed there for 10 years and then went to Princeton University where he held the Class of 1877 chair as Professor of Biology for 9 years. UMASS was incredibly privileged to attract him to be the Gilbert L. Woodside professor of Zoology in 1975 and he was enjoyed for his erudition, knowledge and charm until his death in 1993. His major research interests lay in sensory physiology, particularly chemoreception (taste and smell) in insects and he was a founder of the study of insect-plant interactions. This breadth of interests and depth of knowledge gained him acceptance into many prestigious societies, including the National Academy of Sciences which invited him to become a member in 1965.

Books

Dethier was an active scientist until his death, and wrote more than 170 scientific papers, 15 scientific books, and at least one children's book. Several of his scientific books were written for non-scientists since he thought it important to communicate the fascination and methods of science to as many people as possible. His books included:
* "Crickets & Katydids: Concerts and Solos" (Won the John Burroughs Medal for distinguished Nature Writing.) (1992) ISBN 0-674-17577-8
* "The Ecology of a Summer House" (1984) ISBN 0-87023-422-6
* "To Know a Fly" (1963) ISBN 0-07-016574-2
* "Newberry, the Life and Times of a Maine Clam" (1981) ISBN 0-89272-085-9
* "Fairweather Duck" (1970) ISBN 0-8027-0102-7

References

*http://www.umass.edu/neuro/newsletter/newsbriefs.htm
*http://www.wfcr.org/OLD_WWW/dethier.html

External links

*worldcat id|lccn-n79-92478