| Wendell Lee Roelofs | |
| Birth Date: | 26 July 1938 |
| Birth Place: | Orange City, Iowa |
| Education: | bachelor's degree (chemistry, 1960) PhD 1964 NIH post doctoral fellowship |
| Alma Mater: | Central College in Pella, Iowa Indiana University Bloomington Massachusetts Institute of Technology |
| Occupation: | biochemist |
| Employer: | Cornell University College of Agriculture and Life Sciences Department of Entomology-Geneva |
| Known For: | Developed insect sex attractants for pest control |
| Liberty Hyde Bailey Professor of Insect Biochemistry | |
| Party: | Republican |
| Spouse: | Marilyn Joyce Kuiken (c:a 1960 until ?) Donna R. Gray (1989 until ?) Joanna Roelofs, Jan. 13, 2005 |
| Children: | Brenda Jo, Caryn Jean, Jeffrey Lee, and Kevin Jon |
| Parents: | Edward and Edith Beyers Roelofs |
| Relatives: | two brothers, one chemist, the other an electrical engineer |
| Awards: | 1973 J Everett Bussart Award, Entomol Soc Am 1977 Alexander von Humboldt Award 1990 Silver Medal, Int Soc Chem Ecol 1982 Wolf Prize in Agriculture 1983 National Medal of Science 2001 American Chemical Society's Kenneth A. Spencer Award in agricultural chemistry 1985 DSc, Central College 1988 Hobart and William Smith Colleges 1988 Indiana University 1989 Lund University, Sweden 1989 Free University Brussels, Belgium |
Wendell L. Roelofs (born July 26, 1938) was the first researcher to characterize insect sex pheromone structures, developing microchemical techniques for the isolation and identification of pheromone components.
Roelofs obtained his BS in chemistry in 1960 from Central College in Pella, Iowa and his PhD in organic chemistry from Indiana University in 1964. He is the Liberty Hyde Bailey Professor of Insect Biochemistry in the Department of Entomology at Cornell University in Ithaca, New York.