Wendell L. Roelofs was instrumental in developing insect sex attractants--substances used to attract insects--for pest control in crops. An organic chemist by training, Roelofs has identified more than 100 attractants of different insect species, using a technique that was hailed as a major breakthrough. Roelofs conducted tests in fields to determine how to use the attractants to lure male insects to traps or to confuse them, thus preventing them from mating.

Wendell Lee Roelofs was born on July 26, 1938, in Orange City, Iowa, to Edward and Edith Beyers Roelofs. His father was a life insurance salesman and former superintendent of schools. Roelofs was the youngest of three boys; his two brothers also became scientists, one of them a chemist and the other an electrical engineer. As an undergraduate at Central College in Pella, Iowa, Roelofs majored in chemistry. He earned his bachelor's degree in 1960 and subsequently married Marilyn Joyce Kuiken...