Chittka's address will honor Charles Henry Turner, pioneering Black researcher of insect cognition
Lars Chittka, Ph.D.
Annapolis, MD; June 4, 2024—Lars Chittka, Ph.D., professor of sensory and behavioural ecology at Queen Mary University of London, has been selected to deliver the Founders' Memorial Award Lecture at Entomology 2024, the Annual Meeting of the Entomological Society of America.
The Founders' Memorial Award was established in 1958 to honor the memory of scientists who made outstanding contributions to entomology. Each year at the ESA Annual Meeting, the recipient of the award delivers the Founders' Memorial Lecture, which posthumously honors the life and career of an influential entomologist.
At Entomology 2024, Chittka's lecture will recount the pioneering accomplishments of Charles Henry Turner, Ph.D. (1867-1923), a Black entomologist whose discoveries on insect sensory systems, learning, personality, and intelligence were a century ahead of their time.
Charles
Henry Turner, Ph.D.
Turner published more than 70 scientific articles during his career, and his landmark discoveries included the first proof of learning in insects as well as their ability to hear sound through the air. He also found evidence for intelligent problem solving and free will in insects.
However, Turner's body of research was neglected by the academic establishment, and, as Chittka and colleague Hiruni Samadi Galpayage Dona, Ph.D., put it in a 2020 profile of Turner in Science, "recent animal cognition research has reinvented wheels that had already been fashioned by Turner." His career was held back by systemic racism in the post-Civil War era, and he was repeatedly denied positions at research institutions. He instead spent much of his career as a high-school teacher.
Chittka has built on the foundations laid by Turner during his career researching sensory and behavioral ecology, especially concerning the cognitive capabilities of bees. He has published more than 270 peer-reviewed articles on his findings, including that bees can count, can open boxes through deduction (and not simple trial and error), and likely have mental states akin to emotions. In 2022, he adapted his body of research and that of others in the field in the book The Mind of the Bee.
Native to Germany, Chittka earned his M.S. (1991) and Ph.D. (1993) in biology at the Free University in Berlin. After postdoctoral positions at FU Berlin and Stony Brook University, he began his professional career as a lecturer at Würzburg University in 1997 and joined Queen Mary University of London in 2002. He is an elected Fellow of the German National Academy of Sciences (Leopoldina), the Linnean Society, the Royal Entomological Society, and the Royal Society of Biology, and he has served on the editorial boards of PLOS Biology and Communicative & Integrative Biology since 2004 and 2008, respectively.
"Dr. Chittka is a distinguished leader in the field of insect intelligence, with a litany of remarkable discoveries," says ESA president Jennifer A. Henke, BCE. "He is well suited to understand the value of Charles Henry Turner's insights and influence on the field of animal cognition, and I look forward to this lecture in honor of those achievements."
In recommending Chittka for the Founders' Memorial Award, James C. Nieh, Ph.D. professor of biological sciences and chair of the Section of Ecology, Behavior, and Evolution at the University of California, San Diego, noted that, "by continuing to explore the remarkable cognitive abilities of bees, Professor Chittka not only furthers our understanding of insect intelligence but also pays tribute to Charles Turner's pioneering work."
Chittka will deliver the Founders' Memorial Lecture, titled "Charles Turner (1867-1923): An African-American Pioneer of Insect Cognition" at Entomology 2024 in Phoenix, Arizona, during the Awards Breakfast and Closing Plenary, beginning at 7:30 a.m. MT on Wednesday, November 13.
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CONTACT: Joe Rominiecki, jrominiecki@entsoc.org, 301-731-4535 x3009
ABOUT: ESA is the largest organization in the world serving the professional and scientific needs of entomologists and people in related disciplines. Founded in 1889, ESA today has nearly 7,000 members affiliated with educational institutions, health agencies, private industry, and government. Headquartered in Annapolis, Maryland, the Society stands ready as a non-partisan scientific and educational resource for all insect-related topics. For more information, visit www.entsoc.org.