Meet & Greet with Prof. Ted Turlings

Speaker

• Prof. Ted Turlings Entomologist, Chemical Ecologist
  

  Prof. Ted Turlings

  Entomologist, Chemical Ecologist

  Ted Turlings is a national of the Netherlands and did his studies at Leiden University, where he obtained a bachelors and masters degree in Biology with a specialization in Ecology. In 1985, he moved to the University of Florida to conduct a PhD in Entomology/Chemical Ecology under the direction of James Tumlinson. During his PhD he discovered that insect-damaged plants emit specific volatile signals that attract parasitic wasps. The discovery of herbivore-induced volatiles has led to numerous follow-up studies by dozens of research groups, which resulted in thousands of publications on the topic. After a brief post-doctoral period in Florida he moved to Switzerland in 1993. He first spent three years at the ETH-Zurich and in 1996 he obtained a prestigious START-fellowship, which he took at the University of Neuchâtel to start his own research group. Eventually, he was nominated full professor at the same university where he helped to establish the National Centre of Competence in Research Plant Survival, a swiss-wide research network that he directed for four years.

  Currently, he is head of the laboratory of Fundamental and Applied Research in Chemical Ecology (FARCE), which focuses on the use of plant-produced signals to improve crop protection. He has obtained a prestigious advanced grant from the European Research Council. He also established and directed a doctoral program for PhD students and is co-director of an international masters in Integrated Crop Management. In addition, he is director of the newly established Center of Competence in Chemical Ecology (C3E) at the University of Neuchâtel. He has received several awards related to the field of chemical ecology and is a member of various scientific societies, including the Swiss Academy of Sciences.