01/03/1996

New Department Head Raising Public Awareness of Entomology

AUBURN, Ala.- Insects can be both friends and foes to the human race, a point that Ed Cupp hopes to bring home to citizens of Alabama and the Southeast in coming months.

Cupp joined the Auburn University faculty in June as the new head of the Department of Entomology. He came to Auburn from the University of Arizona, but is a native southerner who grew up in Kentucky and Mississippi. Returning to the South not only has brought Cupp and his wife, Mary, closer to family, it also has returned him to a region where his interest in entomology first was piqued.

"I was always interested in science and one year I took a summer job doing an insect inventory over a huge area in western Kentucky for the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA)," he recalled. "I had so much fun I couldn't believe they were paying me to do that kind of work."

When he graduated from Murray State University in Kentucky with a bachelor's degree in biology and history, Cupp spent a year with TVA as a biological aide before starting work on a Ph.D. at the University of Illinois. He earned the Ph.D. in entomology with a minor in invertebrate zoology in 1969 and served as a postdoctoral fellow in parasitology at the Tulane School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine. The following year he continued to work at Tulane as an adjunct assistant professor while also serving as a research biologist with the Gulf South Research Institute.

Later, he spent several years as a faculty member at the University of Southern Mississippi, Cornell University, and the University of Notre Dame in various faculty positions or on sabbatical. He joined the University of Arizona faculty in 1988 where he served until coming to Auburn.

Cupp's background in public health entomology has given him a first-hand look at the dangers insects pose to humanity, and also the advantages they provide.

"Insects are part of our natural environment and part of our food chain, helping with pollination but also competing with us for resources," he said. "They have an impact on our health, well-being, food and fiber." Insects also are good indicators of the quality of our environment and they are prime examples of biodiversity, Cupp added. "There are more species of beetles in the world than all other plant and animal species combined," he noted.

Viewing insects as an important part of everyday life is the first step in protecting society from their negative impacts and also toward better utilizing their positive aspects. That's why Cupp hopes to intensify work in certain areas of the department's teaching, research and extension functions to help increase the awareness and appreciation of entomology.

The department has had an impressive national reputation, particularly for its research program in the Alabama Agricultural Experiment Station with agriculturally important insects, a tradition that Cupp intends to continue. In addition, the department has a strong core of urban entomologists who have been doing research, teaching and extension work with such pests as cockroaches, fire ants and other insects that directly affect every citizen.

One of Cupp's goals is to make more use of some of the newer sciences, such as molecular biology, in the department's research program.

Cupp said the department also is developing a working agreement with the University of Alabama at Birmingham medical school to look at the importance of insects in public health. One such study is currently evaluating the molecular composition of the saliva of certain blood-sucking insects. Several molecules already identified may prove useful for treatment of heart disease and stroke.

"We have been using plants and fungi for drugs for many years and I think insects may be our next major source of drugs for the future," he said.

Other areas of research emphasis will focus on integrated pest management (IPM) practices. "The head of Auburn's IPM program, Geoff Zehnder, is in our department and he is a nationally recognized authority on IPM," Cupp said.

IPM is a management approach that utilizes all available methods for controlling crop pests in a way that is least harmful to the public and the environment. By the year 2000 the U.S. Department of Agriculture hopes to see 75 percent of the nation's (and Alabama's) agricultural acreage implementing IPM strategies. Both research and extension programs in the department, said Cupp, will continue to work with other groups on development of IPM strategies.

For the teaching program, Cupp plans to begin national student recruitment efforts, revamp the core curriculum for both undergraduate and graduate level students and establish an internship program for students.

All these efforts, combined with an informational campaign, are ways that Cupp hopes to show Alabama citizens the importance of insects in their everyday lives.

"Most people completely underestimate the importance of entomology in their lives," he said. "Through our department's efforts, we hope to increase the understanding and appreciation of our field of study."

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Auburn, AL 36849
334-844-4877 (PHONE) 334-844-5892 (FAX)

Contact Jamie Creamer, 334-844-2783 or jcreamer@auburn.edu
Contact Katie Jackson, 334-844-5886 or smithcl@auburn.edu

Jan. 3, 1996