Int. J. Insect Morl:hol. & Embryol., Vol. 9, pp. 317 lo 319. ,c Pergamon Press Lld. 1980. Printed in Great Britain

ELEANOR SLIFER

ON THE OCCASION OF HER 80TH BIRTHDAY

ELEANOR H. St.IFER was born in Glenside, Pennsylvania, 30 August, 1900. While growing up she was surrounded by family members who enjoyed working with living things. A first cousin was a research biologist and died, while still young, of ~he contagious disease with which he was working. Another cousin was an eye specialist in Philadelphia and was still operating in his middle eighlies. Dr. Slifer's father was a general practitioner who taught her how to use a microscope when she was about ten and also to draw and paint, skills she would use extensively in her professional career. One of Dr. Slifer's earliest recollections is of taking care of a clump of wild violets growing in the woods near her home.

In high school Dr. Slifer was especially interested in chemistry and continued to study it at Temple LIniversity. She remembers Temple in the early 20's as being financially poor but intellectually a very stimulating place. Her interest slowly shifted from chemistry to biology and upon graduation in 1923 she worked as a laboratory teaching assistant for one and a half years.

In 1925 Dr. Slifer entered the University of Pennsylvania for graduate work. She recalls the way in which she became a zoologist. "The world was less complicated then and one did not have to apply for admission beforehand, i remember walking up Hamilton Walk on which both the botany and zoology buildings were located. I came first to botany and so went in to see the head of the department. It turned out that 1 would have to make up several courses if l entered there. So I went on to zoology and found that l was qualified to start in tPat field. Thus 1 became a zoologist instead of a botanist!"*

Dr. Slifer took both her master's and doctoral degrees in general physiology. During this time she was particularly influenced by the department head, Dr. C. E. McChmg, the cytologist who discovered sex chromosomes many years before when working with grasshopper~ at the University of Kansas. Dr. McClung encouraged students to use insects as research material, so Dr. Slifer selected a problem in developmental physiology of grasshoppers. Her excellence in research was recognized by the National Research Council which awarded her a Fellowship.

* Personal correspondence to the anlhor, 5 Apr i l , 1978.

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318 Eleanor Slifer

In 1930 Dr. Slifer went to the University of Iowa on an "assistantship of sorts"*. She remained at lowa until 1966, rising through the academic ranks until being given a full Professorship in zoology in 1957. Owing to the deaths of Professor Wickham and Dr. Robertson in the 1930's, Dr. Slifer was asked to teach entomology, taxonomy and genetics, st, bjects in which she had had no formal instruction. She also taught laboratory sections in general zoology. Dr. Slifer had always planned to retire early and be near relatives in Pennsylvania. In 1966 she was asked by Dr. H;.Grant to join the Academy of Natural Sciences in Philadelphia on a National Science Foundation grant. Her association with the Academy has continued until the present time.

Dr. Slifer's professional activities have taken her to forty countries and all except two continents. She worked on locusts at the Cambridge University on an appointment from the Marshall Aid Plan in 1950- 1951. In 1955 she returned to England as a Fulbright Fellow to conduct research at the University of Birmingham. Dr. B. P. Uvarov, head of the Anti-Locust Centre in London was particularly helpful to Dr. Slifer during these two years in England.

Dr. Slifer has done research in a number of areas. Among the major ones are physiology of insect development, morphology, embryology, genetics, and cytology of the grasshopper and insect sense organs. The breadth of her interests is reflected by the scientific societies in which she has held membership. Numbered among these are American Association for the Advancement of Science, American Society of Cell Biology, Society of Naturalists, Entomological Society of America, Society of Zoologists, Genetics Association, Faraday Society, Royal Entomological Society of London and International Society of Cell Biology.

Dr. Slifer is best known to the scientific community for her pioneering fine structure studies on insect sense organs; a reputation she earned for work done after her 50th birthday. In 1953, while working at Woods Hole Marine Biological Laboratory, an institution at which she spent 25 summers, she accidentally discovered that a solution of acid fuschin will stain red the tips of the long sensory hairs on the antenna of an intact grasshopper. This fortuitous observation initiated the resolution of the long debated question of how odors reach the sensory nerves through the impermeable cuticle. A few years later the University of lowa acquired an electron microscope which Dr. Slifer used to examine the fine structure and confirm the occurrence of pores in the walls of several kinds of sensory structures.

Owing to a severe allergy to grasshoppers Dr. Slifer decided to see whether the pores could be demonstrated in other insects to which she was not sensitive. She has examined a few species from each order, a work just completed in 1980, and found that hairs with pores are present in all. Dr. Slifer has been especially helped in this endeavor by collaboration with S. S. Sekhon, a former student, who has been associated with Veterans Administration Hospital, Long Beach and Dept. of Anatomy, Medical School, University of California, Los Angeles, since leaving lowa.

Dr. Slifer has published more than 110 papers, most concerned with insect sense organs. Her article, "The Structure of Arthropod Chemoreceptors" , Annual Review of Entomology 15, 121 - 142, 1970, was recently a Citation Classic in Current Contents (Agricultural, Biological and Environmental Science 11(28), 14 July, 1980). This article has been cited over 120 times since 1970. The contributions from Dr. Slifer's own meticulous and thorough studies along with those of people whom she has encouraged

*Personal correspondence to the attlhor, 5 Apri l , 1978.

Eleanor Slifer 319

and guided have provided the solid foundation for the rapidly expanding areas of sensillar fine structure and sensory physiology. She has also made substantial contributions to the field by serving as an associate editor for the Journal o f Morphology and the International Journal o f Insect Morphology and Embryology.

In reflecting upon her own career Dr. Slifer wrote " In seeking for a thread of continuity through the events just listed, 1 would say it has been an intense and life-long interest in plants and animals. Whenever 1 came to a crossroad, as it were, 1 chose the path that promised the better opportunity to find out more about living things. I think the feeling is just as strong now as it was when 1 took charge of the patch of violets growing in the woods near rny home.

Obviously, my professional career was completely unplanned. I was not ambitious in any sense of the word. In fact, I never enjoyed winning if that meant someone had to lose. Being a won:tan never really concerned me, 1 always thought of myself as a human being and let it go at tha t" .*

In her remarkable career, Dr. Slifer has been a beloved teacher, a respected mentor, a critical yet zonsiderate editor, an original and prolific scientist, and from earliest childhood a dedicated student of nature. She is a pleasant, modest, unassuming lady whose high standards, both as a scientist and an individual, serve as excellent goals for those of us who follow.

Department o f Zoology University of Toronto Toronto, Ca,~ada

SUSAN MCIVER