Received his undergraduate training at Central College of Pella, Iowa and his PH. D. at Indiana University in 1964. Following a brief NIH postdoctoral fellowship at MIT, he joined the faculty at Cornell University where he became the Liberty Hyde Bailey Professor of Insect Biochemistry in 1976, a position he still holds today. He has received worldwide recognition for his pioneering research in the field of insect chemical communication, achieving major breakthroughs in the chemical identification, characterization, and biosynthesis of insect pheromones and the ways in which insects perceive and respond to pheromones. This work has important implications for basic and applied biological sciences and the worldwide importance of his work is reflected in numerous awards and honors, including 4 honorary doctorates, election to the National Academy of Sciences, the National Medal of Science, the Israeli Wolf Foundation Prize, and the United States Department of Agriculture Distinguished Service Award.