Williams Is Awarded Ledlie Science Prize

Carroll M. Williams, Bussey Professor of Biology, has been awarded the George Ledlie Prize for his research on insect development.

The $1500 prize is given every two years to the Faculty member who has made "the most valuable contribution to science or in any way for the benefit of mankind."

Williams' best-known research project has resulted in the development of a powerful new insecticide. While studying the juvenile hormone which controls the maturing of an insect, Williams discovered that if this hormone is present at the time of maturation, the insect's normal growth process is thrown off balance. The insect then usually dies.

No Resistance

The hormone is especially effective as an insecticide because it involved insects' metabolism, and, therefore, they cannot build up a resistance to it.

In 1965 Williams and other researchers discovered a substance in American pulp paper that has the same effect on one type of insect as the juvenile hormone. They traced the substance back to the trees used to manufacture paper.

Since then, Williams and his colleagues have synthesized a similar substance which has the effect of the juvenile hormone on virtually all insects tested.