image: Ring Cardé, a distinguished professor and Alfred M. Boyce Chair in Entomology at UC Riverside, has been honored with the Silver Medal by the International Society for Chemical Ecology. view more
Credit: S. Clausen, UC Riverside.
RIVERSIDE, Calif. – For his outstanding contributions to the discipline of chemical ecology, Ring Cardé, a distinguished professor and Alfred M. Boyce Chair in Entomology at the University of California, Riverside, has been honored with the Silver Medal of the International Society for Chemical Ecology (ISCE).
The ISCE Silver Medal is the highest honor awarded by the society. Cardé is the first person at UC Riverside to receive the medal.
First awarded in 1986, the Silver Medal recognizes a scientist's career achievement, rather than any one single achievement, in chemical ecology, the study of chemicals that mediate interactions between living organisms.
"This is a well-deserved recognition for Dr. Cardé," said Rick Redak, chair of the Department of Entomology. "The Silver Medal award is testimony to his outstanding competence and a lifetime of accomplishment, and brings honor also to the department, the college and the university. We are privileged to have him as part of our team."
Cardé studies the chemical cues that insects use to find and identify resources. Most of this work has focused on male moth orientation to female-produced sex pheromones and, more recently, female mosquito orientation to odors from prospective hosts. These studies, done in wind tunnels and in the field, have found that the fine-scale structure of odor plumes greatly influences how insects navigate upwind to the odor's source.
Other work in Cardé's laboratory is aimed at understanding the evolutionary forces mediating these odor-mediated behaviors, including variation in signal production and response. Cardé also has studied the use of synthetic copies of moth pheromones to interfere with mating and thereby manage moth pests.
"I am deeply appreciative of being awarded the Silver Medal, but this recognition is a tribute to the many students, postdocs, and colleagues who have collaborated with me since I began working on the chemical ecology of insects in the 1970s," he said.
Cardé received the medal in Neuchâtel, Switzerland, on Aug. 25, 2009. Wilhelm Boland of the Max Planck Institute for Chemical Ecology, Jena, Germany, then president of the ISCE, presented Cardé with the medal at the conclusion of Cardé's Silver Award Lecture entitled "Finding a Point Source of Odor in a Turbulent World: Lessons from Moths and Mosquitoes."
"My most sincere congratulations to Dr. Cardé," said Jocelyn Millar, a professor of entomology at UCR who served as president of the ISCE during 2005-2006. "Since 1986, the ISCE Silver Medal Award has been awarded 27 times, with awardees including seven members of the U.S. National Academy of Sciences."
Cardé joined UCR in 1996. He served as the chair of the Department of Entomology from 2003 to 2009. Before joining UCR, he was a Distinguished University Professor at the University of Massachusetts.
His many awards and honors include being named a fellow of the Entomological Society of America, Entomological Society of Canada, the Royal Entomological Society, and the American Association for the Advancement of Science. He is a recipient of the Chancellor's Medal at the University of Massachusetts and the Entomological Society of America's Recognition Award in Entomology.
Cardé serves, or has served, on the editorial boards of a number of scientific journals, including the Annual Review of Entomology, the Journal of Chemical Ecology, the Annals of the Entomological Society of America, and the Journal of Economic Entomology. He is a coeditor of the Encyclopedia of Insects (Academic Press, second edition, 2009).
He has published more than 225 peer-reviewed articles and reviews and has edited seven books on the chemical ecology of insects, insect pheromones, and entomology.
The University of California, Riverside (www.ucr.edu) is a doctoral research university, a living laboratory for groundbreaking exploration of issues critical to Inland Southern California, the state and communities around the world. Reflecting California's diverse culture, UCR's enrollment of about 18,000 is expected to grow to 21,000 students by 2020. The campus is planning a medical school and has reached the heart of the Coachella Valley by way of the UCR Palm Desert Graduate Center. The campus has an annual statewide economic impact of more than $1 billion.
A broadcast studio with fiber cable to the AT&T Hollywood hub is available for live or taped interviews. To learn more, call (951) UCR-NEWS.