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Consuelo de Moraes' bio

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Consuelo De Moraes Honored with Inaugural Adkisson Distinguished Speaker Award

November 3, 2008

The Department introduced Dr. Consuelo De Moraes as the first Perry Adkisson Distinguished Seminar Speaker Award during its seminar series on October 23.

The award is named for Dr. Perry Adkisson, who served as the Head of the Entomology Department at Texas A&M from 1967-1978 and as Chancellor of the Texas A&M University System from 1986-1990. 

Adkisson is an outstanding scientist, an elected member of the National Academy of Sciences, and the first ever recipient of all three of the worlds major prizes in agriculture, the Alexander von Humboldt Award, the Wolf Prize, and the World Food Prize. He, along with Dr. Ray Smith, developed what is now known as IPM or Integrated Pest Management. 

Dr. De Moraes was honored for her outstanding research work at Penn State University, where she is an associate professor in the Department of Entomology.

Among the most significant features of tritrophic systems are defensive responses of plants to insect feeding, including the production and release of volatile compounds that mediate chemical communication among plants and between plants and the natural enemies of insect herbivores.  Her research focuses on the chemical communication of plants and the defensive responses of plants to insect feeding. Dr. De Moraes’ efforts are aimed at understanding the ecological dynamics of plant signaling and ultimately at unraveling the influences of chemically mediated communication on community structure and dynamics.

Dr. De Moraes received her bachelor's degree in ecology in 1992 from the Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais in Brazil. She then earned a doctoral degree in entomology from the University of Georgia in 1998.

During her career at Penn State, Dr. De Moraes has received numerous awards, including the DuPont Young Professor Award, the National Science Foundation CAREER Award and the the Early Career Innovation Award from the Entomological Society of America.   The Perry Adkisson Distinguished Seminar Speaker Award is her latest honor.
"It is a great honor and a privilege to be chosen for this great award," she said.

Graduate student Aaron Dickey was impressed with her research and teaching background.

"I think her approach to research is amazing," he said. "She asks very creative questions, which I think is a strength of the best scientists. She's also a very good communicator who uses technology very effectively in her presentations."

The Adkisson Distinguished Speaker Award provides the opportunity for graduate students and the public to learn, listen, and visit with other entomologists on their cutting edge research in the many sub-disciplines of entomology.

For more information about the award, visit the Perry Adkisson Distinguished Seminar Speaker Award page on the Entomology Graduate Student Organization's website at http://egso.tamu.edu/adkissonaward/index.cfm.