Year: 2025
Type: article
Abstract: The passing of our dear friend and colleague, Jeremy Nichol McNeil, on 18 July 2024 sent shock waves across the Canadian entomological community as well as around the world, where he was known for his groundbreaking work in chemical ecology, his vibrant personality, and his talent as a compelling science communicator. Jeremy was born in 1944 in Tonbridge, England. In 1945, his parents, Jean Evelyn Elsie (Nichol) and Alastair McMurdo McNeil of St. John’s, Newfoundland, moved their family to Corner Brook, Newfoundland, where Jeremy spent a happy childhood. Then, they moved to England, where Jeremy attended Lancing College in West Sussex. In 1969, Jeremy completed a degree in zoology with honors at the University of Western Ontario in Canada. He completed his Ph.D. in entomology and ecology at North Carolina State University, Raleigh, NC, under the supervision of Dr. Robert L. Rabb. He then started a most remarkable academic career in entomology. From 1972 to 2002, he worked at Laval University, Quebec City, Canada, where he became a full professor in 1982. We met him as students at Laval University and witnessed his boundless energy at work and his extraordinary talent as a public speaker before various audiences. His approach to people was direct and engaging, such that everybody called him Jeremy (or “Jérémie,” in the case of his French-speaking students and colleagues). Jeremy gave his courses in French, seasoned with Quebecois expressions. Most of the time, he sported entomological T-shirts, with a new one picked every day from his impressive collection of several hundred such tops. This was one of the ways that he promoted entomology. But in November 2015, when the ESA inducted him as a Fellow during the Annual Meeting in Minneapolis, he dressed more formally. From 2004 to 2024, he was Helen I. Battle Professor at his alma mater, the University of Western Ontario (now called Western University), where he taught the courses Chemical Ecology, Introduction to Insect Structure & Function, and Undergraduate Thesis. Concomitantly, he was invited by numerous institutions; for example, as advisor of the Department of Biology, University of the Azores (since 1996), adjunct professor in ecology at Silpakorn University, Thailand (2000–2015), and adjunct professor of the Université de Montréal (Biologie) (2004–2009). Above all, Jeremy strongly believed that science was very important to address the problems of societies. The main thrust of his research program was to understand the reproductive strategies of insects that migrate in response to either predictable or unpredictable habitat deterioration. He supervised about 60 graduate students. With his graduate students and collaborators, he published high-quality papers (Scopus: 5,121 citations, h=41) on the chemical ecology of insects, often focusing on lepidopterans. He will be best remembered for his long-term research on armyworm, Mythimna unipucta. He correctly predicted (and later demonstrated) its seasonal migrations between the southern USA and Canada, due to the insect’s inability to survive the Canadian winters and differences between summer and fall populations in sex pheromone communication strategies and reproductive physiology. He and his graduate students also made very significant contributions to other areas of entomology, including the manipulation of aphid behavior by parasitoids, the impact of oviposition-deterring pheromones on intra-specific competition, and several other aspects of insect chemical ecology. Jeremy was an active member of numerous professional societies, where he often occupied leadership positions: notably, the Entomological Society of Canada (President, 1989); the Entomological Society of Ontario (President, 2013–2014); the Entomological Society of Quebec (President, 1978); the Entomological Society of America (Subject Editor, Journal of Economic Entomology (2009–2011); the Canadian Federation of Biological Societies (President, 1993); Canadian Society of Zoologists (Councilor, 1983–1986); The International Society of Chemical Ecology (President, 1994); The Royal Entomological Society of London (honorary member, 2017); and The Royal Society of Canada (President, 2019–2022). He excelled in reaching out to children, who marveled at his enthusiasm about insects. A book written by Ann Dao (1997) described his work for the young audience whose excitement about entomology Jeremy always tried to elicit. Jeremy received numerous achievement awards during his career, including the prestigious C. Gordon Hewitt Award (1979) and the Gold Medal Award (1987) from the Entomological Society of Canada, the McNeil Medal for the Public Awareness of Science from the Royal Society of Canada (1998), the Silver Medal from the International Society of Chemical Ecology (2004), and the Fry Medal from the Canadian Society of Zoologists (2008). In addition, he was inducted as Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada (1999) and Honorary Fellow of the Royal Entomological Society of London (2019). In his free time, Jeremy knew how to enjoy the good things in life. Among other things, he was an oenophile and respected wine connoisseur, a mask collector, and a skilled and avid gardener. Shortly after his death, several tributes were published; notably, a slide show by Walter S. Leal (UC Davis): https://youtu.be/6rv91wUlWLM Jeremy will be missed by a large community of friends and colleagues. He is survived by his partner, Shelley Yeo; sons, Jamie (Hanh) and Chris (Karly); grandchildren, Morgan and Connor; sister, Deborah (Mike); and Shelley’s daughter, Rebeca Morrison (Glenn Young), and grandchildren, Ema and Luc. Au revoir Jérémie.
Source: American Entomologist
DOI: 10.1093/ae/tmaf006
Authors: Charles Vincent, Michel Cusson
Institution: Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada
Language: English
Subfield: Insect Science
Domain: Life Sciences
Open Access status: bronze
OpenAlex ID: W4409591055