Hughes Mentor:  Paul Feeny

Department: Ecology and Evolutionary Biology

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Interview with Dr. Paul Feeny

From his early days, growing up in England, Dr. Feeny has always been fascinated by the natural world. Specifically, chemical ecology and co-evolution in insect/host-plant systems has shown him the power and breadth of the evolutionary history of life on our planet. A chemical arms race, if you will. He began his exploration of the sciences in chemistry, earning a B.A. from Oxford University. Subsequently, discovering the power of applying a chemical approach to biological questions, he went back to Oxford and earned another undergraduate degree and a Ph.D. in Zoology.

His interest in insect/plant interactions has shaped his career and research goals. He developed the vulnerability versus availability hypothesis to explain insect infestations of agricultural fields. If cultivated crops are relatively inconspicuous in the wild, they will be discovered by only so many insects to which they are vulnerable. On the other hand, larger, more conspicuous plants and trees have been subject to more predation and have therefore evolved more specific defenses over the millennia. When human intervention in the form of farming suddenly makes formerly unobtrusive plants open to widespread detection, these cultivars are barraged by their insect predators. As a result, farmers have had to use pesticides, artificial defenses that naturally conspicuous plants have already evolved internally.

Ultimately, his work has led him to the swallowtail butterfly. A worldwide species, inhabiting numerous climates and exploiting a variety of host-plants, this butterfly has provided Dr. Feeny with an opportunity to study co-evolution in action. He has even found evidence for detoxification chemicals in antenna receptors. These enzymes, normally functioning in the gut to break down poisons, may provide support for a link between preference and performance. This evidence may ultimately shed some light on the constraints imposed by host-plants on their insect residents, as well as the mechanisms of evolution for those insects to shift hosts.

Dr. Feeny has been all over the world in pursuit of a fuller understand of our world. He has received numerous awards and honors, spoke before the US Congress, published dozens of papers in respected journals, and I found his fascination with nature to be infectious. We should all be so lucky to find such passion and wonder in everything we do.

Interview with Professor Paul Feeny

Professor Feeny was educated at Oxford University in England. He began his education as a chemist. In contrast with American school systems, students in England specialize in their studies as early as the age of fifteen during high school. Feeny did not realize until well into his undergraduate work that he greatly enjoyed the “detective work” of organic chemistry, but was not as interested in the more mathematical and equation-based activities of inorganic chemistry. However, in England it is very difficult to change majors. Therefore, after he finished and received his B.A. and M.S. in chemistry working with the brand-new technology of gas chromatography, he took full advantage of a fellowship that was specifically designed for physical scientists wishing to switch into the field of biology. He then completed a second B.A. in zoology in two years and eventually received his zoology Ph.D. from Oxford.

It might seem like an unusual switch from chemistry into zoology but Feeny had always been interested in nature. While he was an undergraduate he volunteered banding migratory birds all over Europe and in Iran for the British Trust of Ornithology. He also chaired for the Oxford Ornithological Society. In fact, he had initially wanted to do his doctoral research on fruit-ripening chemistry in relation to bird feeding; however the professor he worked with did his research on the differential insect herbivory of young and old leaves on oak trees (a result of tannin increase as the leaves grew older). Feeny figured “if not birds, then bugs!” and has been working on insects and the chemistry of their plant interactions ever since.

There was a chance that Feeny might not have gone into the field of research at all. He greatly enjoys making 16mm biology films, and was considering a job working for the BBC. He had planned on creating a program that would include interviews of scientists conducting exciting research. Then his mother asked him if he would rather report the work of other scientists or make discoveries of his own, and he decided he preferred the latter. He heard about a job opening in the entomology department at Cornell through a friend and came to visit. He instantly fell in love with Ithaca and the beauty of the area, and stayed.

Feeny’s lab seems to have been exceptionally productive. It has fostered the careers of numerous successful graduate students who have since made significant contributions to their fields, all of which Feeny appears fondly proud. There are several qualities that Feeny specifically looks for when hiring students in his lab. The most important of these are resourcefulness and versatility. The ability to creatively solve problems on one’s own is especially useful in a busy lab. Motivation and the ability to get along with others are also important. Someone who is likeable and happy to work in the field is better able to do well in his lab. Additionally, more important for graduate students than undergraduates, Feeny feels that the ability to write well is necessary for timeliness and good productivity.

Early research in the lab focused on the defensive chemistry (glucosinolates) of plants in the cabbage family and the insects that fed on them. This research sparked the idea of a “chemical arms race” between host plants and their herbivorous insects. After tenure, Feeny and his lab embarked upon a long-term suite of projects aimed at investigating the insect-plant interactions of swallowtail butterflies from three major angles. These are: the comparative ecology between various species of swallowtail butterflies, the chemical ecology of the butterfly-host plant interactions, and the systematics (evolutionary history) of the swallowtail family. His lab has made significant advances in all three areas of study, but one of the most prominent results has been identifying the contact stimulus chemicals that cause female butterflies to oviposit on particular plants.

After nearly forty years of active research and teaching at Cornell, Feeny has decided to begin retirement. He no longer has an active lab and will be reducing his teaching commitments gradually. He has taught the introductory ecology course and a graduate student core course regularly throughout his career. He also organized and began a collaborative course on chemical ecology, possibly one of the first of its kind, that he taught for many years. That course was eventually split into separate classes, one of which (chemical ecology of herbivore and plant interactions) he continued to teach. Now that he has begun retirement he will most likely teach mainly as a guest and seminar lecturer.

Feeny has a variety of interests other than his research. These include sailing, gardening, traveling, tennis, music, and theater. One particularly interesting hobby that he did for a while is farming. He owned 110 acres on which he raised hay and cattle, thus his list of skills includes operating a John Deere tractor and skinning a steer. Despite his enjoyment of working closely with the land, he did not indicate a desire to return to farming after retirement. His post-retirement plans include mostly writing and traveling. He also plans to edit and hopefully produce the nature films that he had made near the start of his long and fruitful career as a chemical ecologist.