PROGRAM AT A GLANCE
DETAILED COURSE PROGRAM
Monday, June 23, 2025
Monday, June 23, 2025
08:00 – 09:30 Registration
09:30 – 10:00 Introduction/Welcome by Markus Knaden
10:00 – 10:30 Tea / Coffee Break
10:30 – 12:00 Institute tour
12:00 – 14:00 Lunch Break
14:00 – 15:30 Insect chemical communication in the Anthropocene
Markus Knaden (MPI for Chemical Ecology, Germany)
15:30 – 16:00 Tea / Coffee Break
16:00 – 17:30 Application of chemical ecology principles for managing vector borne diseases
Merid Getahun (International Centre of Insect Physiology and Ecology, Kenya)
17:30 – 18:30 Discussions on lectures
Tuesday, June 24, 2025
8:30 – 10:00 Evolutionary neuroethology in hawkmoths
Sonja Bisch-Knaden (MPI for Chemical Ecology, Germany)
10:00 – 10:30 Tea / Coffee Break
10:30 – 12:00 An olfactory social language in the naked mole-rat?
Mohammed A Khallaf (Max Delbrück Center for Molecular Medicine, Germany)
12:00 – 14:00 Lunch Break
14:00 – 15:30 When it's too dark to see: chemical ecology of termites
Robert Hanus (Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic)
15:30 – 16:00 Tea / Coffee Break
16:00 – 17:30 Navigation by visual and chemical cues
Markus Knaden (MPI for Chemical Ecology, Germany)
17:30 – 18:30 Discussions on lectures
Wednesday, June 25, 2025
08:30 – 10:00 Student presentations (Session I)
10:00 – 10:30 Tea / Coffee Break
10:30 – 12:00 Student presentations (Session II)
12:00 – 14:00 Lunch Break
14:00 – 15:30 Posters (Session I)
15:30 – 16:00 Tea / Coffee Break
16:00 – 17:30 Posters (Session II)
Thursday, June 26, 2025
08:30 – 10:00 Early days of insect chemical ecology research: World-wide mission to replace toxic
insecticides with behavior-modifying chemicals
Tom Baker (Penn State University, USA)
10:00 – 10:30 Tea / Coffee Break
10:30 – 12:00 Locust olfactory neurecology
Bill Hansson (MPI for Chemical Ecology, Germany)
12:00 – 14:00 Lunch Break
14:00 – 15:30 Insect pollination and plant evolution
Florian Schiestl (University of Zurich, Switzerland)
15:30 – 16:00 Tea / Coffee Break
16:00 – 17:30 You smell great - Deciphering olfactory communication in Humans
Ilona Croy (Friedrich Schiller University Jena, Germany)
17:30 – 18:30 Discussions on lectures
Friday, June 27, 2025
08:30 – 10:00 Insect chemical ecology in China: Bridging fundamental discoveries and
practical applications
Jin Zhang (Nanjing Agricultural University, China)
10:00 – 10:30 Tea / Coffee Break
10:30 – 12:00 The effects of infections on insect chemical communications
Astrid Groot (University of Amsterdam, The Netherlands)
12:00 – 14:00 Lunch Break
14:00 – 15:30 From fly chemical ecology to pest management
Paul Becher (SLU, Alnarp, Sweden)
15:30 – 16:00 Tea / Coffee Break
16:00 – 17:30 Biting back: How insect herbivores resist plant chemical defenses
Jonathan Gershenzon (Max Planck Institute for Chemical Ecology, Germany)
17:30 – 18:30 Discussions on lectures
Saturday, June 28, 2025
EXCURSION
Sunday, June 29, 2025
FREE
Monday, June 30, 2025
08:30 – 10:00 Mass spectrometry based metabolomics in chemical ecology
Georg Pohnert (Friedrich Schiller University Jena, Germany)
10:00 – 10:30 Tea / Coffee Break
10:30 – 12:00 Unraveling insect-microbe symbioses from the molecular to the organismal level
Martin Kaltenpoth (Max Planck Institute for Chemical Ecology, Germany)
12:00 – 14:00 Lunch Break
14:00 – 15:30 The evolution of chemical communication in deceptive flowers, beetles, and parasitic
wasps
Johannes Stökl (University of Bayreuth, Germany)
15:30 – 16:00 Tea / Coffee Break
16:00 – 17:30 Eating plants for defense: chemical ecology and mechanisms of sequestration in
insects
Franziska Beran (Leibniz Institute of Vegetable and Ornamental Crops, Germany)
17:30 – 18:30 Discussions on lectures
Tuesday, July 1, 2025
08:30 – 10:00 tba
Teun Dekker (SLU, Alnarp, Sweden)
10:00 – 10:30 Tea / Coffee Break
10:30 – 12:00 Behaviour and chemical ecology of above-below ground multi-trophic interactions
Jared Gregory Ali (Penn State University, USA)
12:00 – 14:00 Lunch Break
14:00 – 15:30 Basic organic chemistry for chemical ecology
Sarah O’Connor (Max Planck Institute for Chemical Ecology, Germany)
15:30 – 16:00 Tea / Coffee Break
16:00 – 17:30 Insect odorant receptors: functional studies and targets for pest control
Emmanuelle Jacquin-Joly (INRAE, France)
17:30 – 18:30 Discussions on lectures
Wednesday, July 2, 2025
08:30 – 10:00 Unraveling the role of predation risk and predator chemical cues in Arthropod
ecology
Sara Hermann (Penn State University, USA)
10:00 – 10:30 Tea / Coffee Break
10:30 – 12:00 Let’s spice it up! Applying chemical ecology for sustainable vegetable production
Nicole van Dam (Leibniz Institute of Vegetable and Ornamental Crops, Germany)
12:00 – 14:00 Lunch Break
14:00 – 15:30 Experiments
15:30 – 16:00 Tea / Coffee Break
16:00 – 17:30 Experiments
17:30 – 18:30 Discussions on lectures
Thursday, July 3, 2025
08:30 – 10:00 Environmental impacts on volatile-mediated interactions
James Blande (University of Eastern Finland)
10:00 – 10:30 Tea / Coffee Break
10:30 – 12:00 Discusssion on lecture
12:00 – 14:00 Lunch Break
14:00 – 15:30 Experiments
15:30 – 16:00 Tea / Coffee Break
16:00 – 17:30 Experiments
Friday, July 4, 2025
08:30 – 10:00 Chemical communication in social insects
Yuko Ulrich (Max Planck Institute for Chemical Ecology, Germany)
10:00 – 10:30 Tea / Coffee Break
10:30 – 12:30 Wrap up and closing remarks
