2006 Alumni Fellow

Denlinger's 30-year career in entomology has included numerous publications, grants, notable honors and awards. He has served as assistant professor, associate professor and professor at Ohio State since 1976 and chaired the department for 11 years. He was a research associate both at Harvard University and at the Agricultural University in the Netherlands. He was also involved with the International Centre of Insect Physiology and Ecology as a research scientist in Nairobi, Kenya, from 1972 to 1974.

Denlinger has received several prestigious awards and honors including his election to the National Academy of Sciences in 2004. He is this year's recipient of the Gregory P. Mendel Honorary Medal for Merit in the Biological Sciences from the Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic. He has been honored with numerous awards from the Entomological Society of America including the Recognition Award in Insect Physiology, Biochemistry and Toxicology (2003); the Founder's Memorial Award (1999); the C.V. Riley Achievement Award (1998); and Fellow of the Entomological Society of America (1994). He received the Distinguished Scholar Award from Ohio State University in 1996 and the Rockefeller Foundation Scholar-in-Residence award in Bellagio, Italy (1992). He was also made a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science in 1988.

Denlinger has contributed to more than 200 publications and has received over $5 million in grants from organizations such as the National Institute of Health, the United States Department of Agriculture and the National Science Foundation. In the past five years he has served as editor of the Journal of Insect Physiology and serves on the editorial boards of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences USA, European Journal of Entomology, Entomological Science (Japan), and Insect Science (China).

The focus of Denlinger's work and research has explored insect survival mechanisms during adverse seasons and in harsh climates, as well as the biology of the tsetse fly of Africa, carrier of African sleeping sickness and nagana, diseases that are often fatal to humans and cattle. He leads the field in research on insect diapause--a physiological state similar to hibernation--and because of this, he has recently been working in Antarctica to study an insect living in one of the most extreme environments on earth.

He has professional collaborations and partnerships in several places around the world including Kenya, the Czech Republic and China. His professional associations are strong here in the United States as well, as reflected by a comment from Richard Hall, associate dean for the College of Biological Sciences at Ohio State, who says, "I can't imagine anyone more deserving of Academy membership. Dave does it all -- he's an exceptional researcher, tireless in his service to the university, and he's a great teacher and humanitarian."

Denlinger received his bachelor's degree in entomology and zoology from Penn State in 1967 and his Ph.D. in entomology from the University of Illinois in 1971.