UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. -- Consuelo De Moraes, assistant professor of entomology in Penn State's College of Agricultural Sciences, will receive a personal research grant from the Arnold and Mabel Beckman Foundation.

De Moraes' research on the chemical relationships between plants and insects will be supported by an award of $240,000 from the foundation's Young Investigator Program to be allocated over a three-year period. The foundation awards grants to nonprofit research institutions to promote research in chemistry and life sciences. Each year, the Beckman Young Investigator Program provides support to the most promising young faculty members in the early stages of their academic careers.

De Moraes also recently received a research grant from the David and Lucile Packard Foundation Fellowship for Science and Engineering. She will receive $625,000 from the Packard Foundation to be allocated over a five-year period.

De Moraes' research focuses on the chemical communication of plants and the defensive responses of plants to insect feeding. When attacked by insect pests, plants release complex blends of airborne chemicals with odor molecules that can be interpreted by insects as warning messages, distress signals and invitations. According to De Moraes, they are also important location cues for other insects that are natural enemies of the pests.

The discovery that plants produce information-rich chemical signals in response to specific environmental stimuli holds potential for technological advances in both agriculture and environmental sensing. De Moraes' continued research might someday be applied to the development of new agricultural techniques and crop varieties that could enhance plant resistance to pests. De Moraes received her bachelor's degree in ecology in 1992 from the Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais in Brazil. In 1998, she earned a doctoral degree in entomology from the University of Georgia. She joined Penn State's department of entomology in 2001.

The Penn State Department of Entomology, established in 1963, provides undergraduate education, graduate student training and extension outreach education. Twenty faculty and more than 30 graduate students work on a variety of research topics supporting the department's integrated pest management thrust. For more information, contact the department at 814-865-1895 or visit the Web at http://www.ento.psu.edu/. EDITORS: Larry Hutchinson can be reached at 814-863-5938.

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Contact:

Cheryl Anthony cka106@psu.edu 814-865-3636 814-863-9877 fax

Gary Abdullah gxa2@psu.edu Chuck Gill cdg5@psu.edu 814-863-2713 814-863-9877 fax #169