David G. Heckel

David G. Heckel (born 1953) is an American entomologist.

After studying biology and mathematics at the University of Rochester, New York, he finished his undergraduate studies with a BA in biology & mathematics in 1975.

He received his PhD in biological sciences from Stanford University in 1980.

From 1980 until 1999 he worked as an Assistant, Associate and Full Professor at Clemson University, South Carolina.

He was a Fulbright Fellow in Canberra, Australia, from 1996 until 1997.

Since 1999 he was a Senior Lecturer at the University of Melbourne, Australia, until he became a Director and Scientific Member at the Max Planck Institute for Chemical Ecology in 2003 where he is head of the Department of Entomology.

Since 2006 he is also an Honorary Professor at Friedrich Schiller University in Jena, Germany.

Heckel studies the adaptations and mechanisms by which herbivorous insects find and exploit their host plants.

He explores how these adaptations interact with other stresses encountered in the environment.

A major strategy in his research is to utilize the pattern of genetic variation existing between populations, races, or species; and by mapping the genes and evaluating candidates to identify the mechanisms involved.

He also uses this approach to study the genetic and physiological mechanisms by which insects evolve resistance to chemical and biological insectides, especially Cry toxins (Bt) from the bacterium Bacillus thuringiensis.

Additional focus is on patterns of genetic variability in host-races or pheromone-races of insects that appear to be in the process of forming new species.