Wendell L. Roelofs was instrumental in developing insect sex attractants--substances used to attract insects--for pest control in crops. An organic chemist by training, Roelofs has identified more than 100 attractants of different insect species, using a technique that was hailed as a major breakthrough. Roelofs conducted tests in fields to determine how to use the attractants to lure male insects to traps or to confuse them, thus preventing them from mating.

Wendell Lee Roelofs was born on July 26, 1938, in Orange City, Iowa, to Edward and Edith Beyers Roelofs. His father was a life insurance salesman and former superintendent of schools. Roelofs was the youngest of three boys; his two brothers also became scientists, one of them a chemist and the other an electrical engineer. As an undergraduate at Central College in Pella, Iowa, Roelofs majored in chemistry. He earned his bachelor's degree in 1960 and subsequently married Marilyn Joyce Kuiken. The couple raised four children: Brenda Jo, Caryn Jean, Jeffrey Lee, and Kevin Jon.

Roelofs attended graduate school at Indiana University in Bloomington and studied organic chemistry. He wrote his doctoral thesis on biologically active compounds with potential use in medicine. For his post-doctoral work, Roelofs moved on to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). While looking for a job in 1965, Roelofs heard of an opening in the entomology department at Cornell University's New York State Agricultural Experiment Station. The department chair, Paul Chapman, was looking for an organic chemist to explore insect sex attractants called pheromones.

Rachel Carson's book, Silent Spring, published in 1962, had raised consciousness about the overuse of toxic pesticides to control insects and the need for alternatives. Female insects relied on pheromones to attract mates. Instead of poisons, pheromones could be used to prevent insects from mating and multiplying. Roelofs had never even taken a college course in biology, but the job piqued his interest in the subject. He was hired as an assistant professor, and his new research soon led him to the interface of the disciplines...