Vincent Dethier

Vincent Dethier (20 February 1915, Boston — 8 September 1993, Northampton, Massachusetts) was a notable American physiologist and entomologist, nephew of organist Gaston Dethier (1875—1958) and violinist Édouard Dethier (1885—1962), and the pioneering expert in the study of insect-plant interactions. He wrote over 170 academic papers and 15 scientific monographs, popular science essays on natural history, and children's books. Dethier taught at the University of Massachusetts Amherst from 1975 until he died in 1993. Dethier originated from a musical family — one of four children of organist Jean-Vincent Dethier from Belgium, who immigrated to the United States in the early 1900s and served as the organist at the Church of the Immaculate Conception in Boston. Vincent became the first scientist in the family but still retained a lifelong appreciation of Baroque music and later played on a recorder in the university's quartet in Massachusetts. Dethier studied at Harvard University, earning his BA, MA, and Ph.D. degrees. He began teaching after the Second World War, working at Ohio State University and Johns Hopkins University (1947 to 1958), serving as a professor of zoology and psychology at The University Of Pennsylvania (1958 to 1967), and professor of biology at Princeton University (1967 to 1975).