Nan-Yao Su: Good Lucky Me

Abstract

When Nan-Yao Su immigrated from Japan to the United States in 1978, he could not have imagined that he would one day stand on Ellis Island as a naturalized citizen responsible for protecting the most iconic symbol of American freedom—the Statue of Liberty—from termites. Currently a distinguished professor of entomology at the University of Florida, Su revolutionized termite control with his invention of Sentricon, the world’s first commercial termite baiting system. Su earned B.S. (1975) and M.S. (1977) degrees, both in sericultural science, from the Kyoto Institute of Technology, Kyoto, Japan, and a Ph.D. (1982) in entomology from the University of Hawaii, Honolulu. After spending two years as a postdoctoral associate studying the behavioral ecology and control of subterranean termites at Louisiana State University with Jeffrey La Fage, he joined the faculty of the University of Florida in 1985. Su is internationally respected as an authority on subterranean termite biology, ecology, and behavior. His depth of knowledge and seminal research with these destructive pests served as the foundation for developing the Sentricon system. Commercialized in 1995, the system used a monitoring–baiting approach to identify and then treat the termite colony with hexaflumuron, an insect growth regulator (IGR). This slow-acting chemical allows the termite workers to pass the IGR to one another via trophallaxis, subsequently eliminating the entire colony, including the queen.