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Marcel Dicke (born November 28, 1957, in
Dordrecht Dordrecht (), historically known in English as Dordt (still colloquially used in Dutch, ) or Dort, is a city and municipality in the Western Netherlands, located in the province of South Holland. It is the province's fifth-largest city after R ...
,
Netherlands ) , anthem = ( en, "William of Nassau") , image_map = , map_caption = , subdivision_type = Sovereign state , subdivision_name = Kingdom of the Netherlands , established_title = Before independence , established_date = Spanish Netherl ...
) is a
Dutch Dutch commonly refers to: * Something of, from, or related to the Netherlands * Dutch people () * Dutch language () Dutch may also refer to: Places * Dutch, West Virginia, a community in the United States * Pennsylvania Dutch Country People E ...
professor of
entomology Entomology () is the scientific study of insects, a branch of zoology. In the past the term "insect" was less specific, and historically the definition of entomology would also include the study of animals in other arthropod groups, such as arach ...
who has been affiliated with
Wageningen University Wageningen University & Research (also known as Wageningen UR; abbreviation: WUR) is a public university in Wageningen, Netherlands, specializing in life sciences with a focus on agriculture, technical and engineering subjects. It is a globally ...
since 2002. He conducts research on insects and has published in the scientific journals ''Science'' and ''Nature''. Dicke received the
Spinoza Prize The Spinoza Prize ( nl, Spinozapremie) is an annual award of 2.5 million euro, to be spent on new research given by the Dutch Research Council (NWO). The award is the highest scientific award in the Netherlands ) , anthem = ( en, "Willia ...
in 2007 for his research on the interactions between plants and insects.


Career

Dicke studied
biology Biology is the scientific study of life. It is a natural science with a broad scope but has several unifying themes that tie it together as a single, coherent field. For instance, all organisms are made up of cells that process hereditar ...
at Leiden University, where he graduated ''
cum laude Latin honors are a system of Latin phrases used in some colleges and universities to indicate the level of distinction with which an academic degree has been earned. The system is primarily used in the United States. It is also used in some So ...
'' in 1982. Subsequently, he obtained his PhD in 1988 at
Wageningen University Wageningen University & Research (also known as Wageningen UR; abbreviation: WUR) is a public university in Wageningen, Netherlands, specializing in life sciences with a focus on agriculture, technical and engineering subjects. It is a globally ...
. With Joop van Lenteren and Maus Sabelis as advisers, he wrote a PhD thesis titled ''Infochemicals In Tritrophic Interactions. Origin and function in a system consisting of predatory mites''. From 1997 to 2001 Dicke held the Uyttenboogaart-Eliasen chair, part of the Entomology chair group, where he has been a professor since 2002. Since 2003 Dicke has been a board member of the Agricultural Export Fund 1918 and since 2006 he has been vice-chairman of the Dutch Entomological Society. In 2008 he was elected as a member of the Royal Dutch Society of Sciences and in 2013 he was a jury member of the Dr. AH. Heineken Prize for Environmental Sciences. In 2013 he became chairman of the Uyttenboogaart-Eliasen Foundation and chairman of the board of directors of the Van Groenendael-Krijger Foundation. Dicke's book ''Blij met een dooie mug en andere verhalen over insecten'' (''Happy with a dead mosquito and other stories about insects'') was published in 2011.


Scientific Activities

Dicke's research is focused on the tritrophic interactions between plants, herbivorous insects, and predatory insects. In research published in 1988, he was the first to show that, when consumed by herbivorous insects, certain plants secrete substances that attract predatory insects. More recently, Dicke has initiated efforts to make the consumption of insects more acceptable to the general public. For example, he was a speaker at
TEDGlobal TED Conferences, LLC (Technology, Entertainment, Design) is an American-Canadian non-profit media organization that posts international talks online for free distribution under the slogan "ideas worth spreading". TED was founded by Richard Sau ...
in 2010, where presented a talk ''Why not eat insects?,'' which substantiated why people should eat more insects. Dicke has stated that raising insects as food is energy-efficient, it produces less waste than raising other animals, and there may be positive human health effects from consuming insects. In 2014, together with Arnold van Huis and Henk van Gump, he published ''The Insect Cookbook: Food for a Sustainable Planet'', a translation of and expansion of ''Het insectenkookboek'' (''The Insect Cookbook''), of which Dicke is also co-author. As a researcher, Dicke has more than six hundred publications to his name, including ones in the highly ranked scientific journals ''Nature'' and ''Science''.


Honors

In 2006 Dicke received the Rank Prize (jointly with Joop van Lenteren and
Louise Vet Louise Elisabeth Maria Vet (born in Haarlem on 9 January 1954) is a Dutch biologist and emeritus professor of ecology at Wageningen University. In addition to her scientific career, she focuses on increasing environmental awareness among the gener ...
) and in the same year he received the Academic Year Prize for organizing ''City of Insects'' in
Wageningen Wageningen () is a municipality and a historic city in the central Netherlands, in the province of Gelderland. It is famous for Wageningen University, which specialises in life sciences. The municipality had a population of in , of which many ...
, which attracted more than 20,000 visitors. In 2007 he was awarded the
Spinoza Prize The Spinoza Prize ( nl, Spinozapremie) is an annual award of 2.5 million euro, to be spent on new research given by the Dutch Research Council (NWO). The award is the highest scientific award in the Netherlands ) , anthem = ( en, "Willia ...
for his research into the interaction between plants and insects. In 2011 Dicke was elected to the
Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences The Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences ( nl, Koninklijke Nederlandse Akademie van Wetenschappen, abbreviated: KNAW) is an organization dedicated to the advancement of science and literature in the Netherlands. The academy is housed ...
, where he is a member of the biology section. In 2013, together with the "Team Vroege Vogels", he won the
Eureka Prize The Eureka Prizes are awarded annually by the Australian Museum, Sydney, to recognise individuals and organizations who have contributed to science and the understanding of science in Australia. They were founded in 1990 following a suggestion ...
for science communication for his efforts to increase science involvement in the general public and make scientific knowledge more accessible to a wide audience.


References


External links


Marcel Dicke - Google Scholar citations

Marcel Dicke - NWO biography


{{DEFAULTSORT:Marcel Dicke Living people Dutch entomologists Academic staff of Wageningen University and Research Members of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences Wageningen University and Research alumni Spinoza Prize winners 1957 births Leiden University alumni