Florence Dunkel - MSU

“What's for Dinner? Rethinking the Dinner Table”

Picture of Florence DunkelWhen Florence Dunkel was presented the North American Consortium for Insect Agriculture’s award for Excellence in Entomology Research and Leadership, she was introduced as the founder of the new industry of edible insects.

In her talk, “What’s for Dinner? Rethinking the Dinner Table,” Dunkel will discuss her research on this alternate food source and her work to help feed people around the world. She might also promote the 31st Montana State University Bug Buffet.

Joining MSU as an entomology professor in 1988, she became the College of Agriculture’s first female department head and the second woman to chair an entomology department at any U.S. land-grant university.

Her most recent book documents how she engaged students in service-learning on the Northern Cheyenne and Apsaalooke reservations, as well as in “Peace Corps-type” projects in Africa. One of these projects is credited with virtually eliminating malaria in a village in Mali.

Her research on biocontrol of insects and biorational natural products resulted in safe alternatives to chemical pesticide, for which she has been awarded two patents.

She has a Ph.D. in entomology from the University of Wisconsin Madison.