Reflections on a career
in crop chemicals
Dr Julius Menn addresses a
symposium at the University of California in his honour
SCI Member and Pest Management Science Board Member Dr
Julius Menn, who has enjoyed a long and distinguished career
in crop management/pesticide science, was recently honoured
at a symposium at the University of California in Berkeley,
US. In this abridged version of Dr Menn’s speech, he describes
the highs and lows of his career, including what he describes
as the ‘golden age of pesticide research’. Although
now retired, Dr Menn still carries out consultancy work for
the pesticide industries.
Mine was a career that began steeped in fundamental research
in pesticide toxicology and biochemistry, and evolved into
research on the fate of chemical pesticides, discovery of
new approaches in insect control exploiting juvenile hormone
and insect neuropeptides.
All of this occurred during a time when these were novel
and unfolding areas of research. The 1960s and 1970s were
indeed the golden years for a young scientist working in industry.
The close association of bench scientists with upper management,
funding for long-term research, and stability in the employment
place all contributed to the discovery and development process.
The cataclysmic changes that started in the pesticide industry
in the 1980s, resulting in mergers, personnel reductions and
cuts in research emphasis, provided a new face to the industry
that I had known.
My Stauffer tenure started in late 1957 and lasted 21 years;
it was professionally the most fulfilling and joyful period
in my almost 50-year career. At that time, Stauffer was a
dynamic and rapidly growing chemical enterprise. The discovery
of the thiocarbamate herbicides by Harry Tilles and Joe Antognini
became the foundation of a modern Stauffer Agricultural Division.
My assignment was to build an insecticide discovery and biochemistry
department and what resulted was a highly professional and
productive department. In Mountain View I had the good fortune
of hiring early on the late Dr Bruce McBain, who became a
close collaborator and dear friend. Together we started the
metabolism endeavour and in the process published 15 research
papers together. This number would have been much higher had
management let us publish more freely.
I left Stauffer, in part because I lost the chance to be
overall Director of Biological Research, and became Director
of Agrochemical Research at Zoecon Corporation in 1979. I
view my greatest accomplishment in my six years tenure at
Zoecon as creating a herbicide discovery unit supported by
Oxy’s top management. We also focused on insect neuropeptides,
instituted with the vision of Prof Herbert Roller and the
late John Siddall, and enthusiastic support and participation
of several key scientists at Zoecon. I supervised this pioneering
project which ultimately led to the discovery of several key
insect neuropeptides that were instrumental in regulating
key biochemical events in insect development and function.
My Zoecon excursion ended after six years, when it became
apparent that the ‘fire sale’ acquisition by Sandoz
in 1983 would eventually result in the end of the enterprise
that I had joined in 1979. Zoecon was gradually digested by
Sandoz, which itself was later swallowed by what became Novartis.
The next stop in my journey was at the US Department of Agriculture’s
(USDA) Agricultural Research Center in Beltsville, Maryland.
In the 10 years that I spent in the USDA, I served as National
Program Leader for Pest Management, and later as Associate
Director of the Plant Sciences Institute, the largest in Beltsville,
which encompassed all entomological research. Looking back
I feel that the highlight for me was establishing insect neuropeptide
research in Beltsville and other ARS locations as a national
objective for the organisation.
During these 10 years, I also gained in-depth knowledge and
appreciation of integrated pest management and biological
control. I became convinced during these years that chemical
insecticides were overused and that their load in the environment
could be significantly reduced by practices incorporating
principles of IPM, ICM, and cultural and biological control.
These insights and the knowledge gained have served me well
in my ensuing consulting work.
I succeeded in establishing research on insect neuropeptides
as a national objective for the agency. Such research was
most fitting in the government framework, emphasising long-term
objectives that might provide leads for industry. A laboratory
was commissioned at the Beltsville Agricultural Research Center
and one at the ARS research center in Texas, both dedicated
to this effort. In Beltsville, this research was carried out
ably by the late Dr Tom Kelly, Drs Peter Masler and Ashok
Raina. Dr Raina was a senior investigator who discovered the
pheromone biosynthesis activating neuropeptide (PBAN) in lepidopterans,
and defined its function. For this work he was awarded the
Jacob-Mono gold medal in Paris.
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