Gifts in Action - Professor May Berenbaum

MEET MAY BERENBAUM

May Berenbaum is professor and head of the Department of Entomology at Urbana-Champaign. The Maybelle Swanlund Endowed Chair was invaluable in allowing Professor Berenbaum to pursue interdisciplinary research, the sort that tends to fall between traditional cracks. It also allowed her to provide interdisciplinary training to her graduate students.

“We were able to purchase a photodiode array detector for our HPLC,” said Berenbaum. “This is an instrument that is basically too inexpensive for an equipment grant, but too expensive for an individual investigator grant. It greatly enhanced our ability to separate and identify natural products and in fact was the workhorse behind two lab projects, one of which is the basis of a dissertation, that wouldn’t have been possible otherwise.”

According to Berenbaum, this gift has been a driving force in advancing knowledge of the function of carotenoids in plant tissues and their impact on feeding behaviors of insects. It was a huge contributing factor to the interdisciplinary training of the next generation of scientists by equipping biologists with analytical skills in chemistry. Berenbaum also used this gift to assist with research in revealing the ways in which insects process natural insecticidal compounds produced by plants. The gift allowed her to hire an expert chemist who was instrumental in training students and other lab personnel in making optimal use of their analytical equipment for a short period of time.

The Maybelle Swanlund Endowed Chair

The highest endowed titles at Illinois were established by Maybelle Leland Swanlund to recognize faculty members for outstanding contributions in their fields.

WHAT SHE SAYS

“It’s hard to express just how incredibly valuable this support was,” said Berenbaum. “It gave us the freedom to break through traditional barriers and to follow the science wherever it leads.”