Nellie Maria de Cottrell Payne (December 11, 1900 – July 19, 1990) was an American entomologist and agricultural chemist. Her research on insect responses to low temperature had practical agricultural and environmental applications.

Nellie M. Payne
Born(1900-12-11)December 11, 1900
Cheyenne Wells, Colorado
DiedJuly 19, 1990(1990-07-19) (aged 89)
Chicago
NationalityAmerican
Alma materKansas State Agricultural College,
University of Minnesota
AwardsNational Research Council Fellow,
Fellow of the Entomological Society of America
Scientific career
Fieldsentomologist
InstitutionsLindenwood College,
American Cyanamid

Early life and education

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Emily Maria de Cottrell Payne was born in 1900, in Cheyenne Wells, Colorado, daughter of James E. Payne Sr. and Mary Emmeline Cottrell Payne. Her father was superintendent of an agricultural station.[1] She had two brothers, Amos and James.[2] She earned a bachelor's (1920) and master's (1921) degrees in agricultural chemistry and entomology from the Kansas State Agricultural College, and a Ph.D. in 1925 from the University of Minnesota.[3] Under the advisement of Royal N. Chapman in the Division of Entomology and Economic Zoology, her dissertation concerned the effects of low temperatures on insects.[4]

Career and research contributions

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During her graduate studies, Payne taught briefly at Lindenwood College in Missouri.[5] As a young scholar she spent several years as an editor and staff member at Biological Abstracts. She was named a National Research Council Fellow in 1925, to work in the zoology department at the University of Pennsylvania.[6] From 1933 to 1937 Payne taught entomology at the University of Minnesota,[7] while spending summers as a researcher at Woods Hole Marine Biological Laboratory.[8] Her research at Woods Hole involved low temperature effects on invertebrates and the physiological effects of parasitoids on their hosts.[9] Payne left academia in 1937, to be a researcher for American Cyanamid; in 1942 she shared a patent on an insecticide with fellow researcher Walter Ericks.[10] She received a patent on another insecticide in 1949, as sole inventor.[11] In 1957, she accepted a position with Velsicol Chemical Corporation, and stayed with them until her retirement in 1971.[12]

In 1921, Payne was elected to membership in the American Association for the Advancement of Science, and in 1940 she was named a fellow of the Entomological Society of America.[13] She was also an active member of the New York Academy of Sciences,[14] was a National Research Council fellow in zoology at U. Pennsylvania (1925–27), a member of the American Chemical Society, and the American Society of Zoologists.[15][16]

Payne conducted some of the seminal work on insect cold hardiness, including that on aquatic insects,[17] Popillia japonica,[18] and numerous forest insect pests.[19] It continues to be cited as a foundation for later research.[20][21][22][23]

Personal life

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Nellie Payne died at home in Chicago in 1990, age 89.[24]

References

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  1. ^ Annual Catalogue of the Officers, Students, and Graduates of the Kansas State Agricultural College (Kansas State University):73.
  2. ^ "Out of Town Notes" Alma Enterprise (December 11, 1914): 1. via Newspapers.com  
  3. ^ "Nellie Maria de Cottrell Payne" in Marilyn Ogilvie and Joy Harvey, eds., The Biographical Dictionary of Women in Science: Pioneering Lives From Ancient Times to the Mid-20th Century (Routledge 2003): 993. ISBN 9781135963439
  4. ^ Nellie Maria de Cottrell Payne, "Freezing and Survival of Insects at Low Temperature" (Ph.D. dissertation, University of Minnesota, 1925).
  5. ^ "News of the State" Columbia Evening Missourian (September 9, 1921): 6. via Newspapers.com  
  6. ^ Nellie M. Payne, "Cold Hardiness in the Japanese Beetle, Popilia Japonica Newman" Biological Bulletin 55(3)(September 1928): 163-179.
  7. ^ Nellie M. C. Payne, General Physiology of Insects: Outlines of Lectures (University of Minnesota 1933).
  8. ^ Nellie M. Payne, "Measures of Insect Cold Hardiness" Biological Bulletin 52(6)(June 1927): 449-457.
  9. ^ Redfield, A.C. (ed). 1937.  Biological Bulletin LXXIII.  Lancaster Press, Inc Available online: https://archive.org/details/biologicalbullet731937lill
  10. ^ U. S. Patent No. 2289541, granted on July 14, 1942, to Walter Ericks and Nellie M. C. Payne.
  11. ^ U. S. Patent No. 2469340, granted on May 3, 1949, to Nellie M. C. Payne.
  12. ^ "Nellie M. Payne, ESA Fellow (1940)" Entomological Society of America.
  13. ^ "Nellie M. Payne, ESA Fellow (1940)" Entomological Society of America.
  14. ^ "Nellie M. Payne, ESA Fellow (1940)" Entomological Society of America.
  15. ^ Cattrel, J. (ed). 1967. American Men of Science  11th ed.  R.R. Bowker Co.,  NY, NY.
  16. ^ Wayne, T.K.  2011.  American Women of Science since 1900, vol 1.  ABC-CLIO/Greenwood LLC , Santa Barbara, CA. 1025 pp.
  17. ^ Payne, Nellie M. (April 1927). "Two Factors of Heat Energy Involved in Insect Cold Hardiness". Ecology. 8 (2): 194–196. Bibcode:1927Ecol....8..194P. doi:10.2307/1928958. ISSN 0012-9658. JSTOR 1928958.
  18. ^ PAYNE, NELLIE M. (September 1928). "Cold Hardiness in the Japanese Beetle, Popillia Japonica Newman". The Biological Bulletin. 55 (3): 163–179. doi:10.2307/1536834. ISSN 0006-3185. JSTOR 1536834.
  19. ^ Payne, Nellie M. (January 1926). "The Effect of Environmental Temperatures Upon Insect Freezing Points". Ecology. 7 (1): 99–106. Bibcode:1926Ecol....7...99P. doi:10.2307/1929124. ISSN 0012-9658. JSTOR 1929124.
  20. ^ Lauritz Sømme, Invertebrates in Hot and Cold Arid Environments (Springer Science and Business Media 2012): 174. ISBN 9783642795831
  21. ^ M. S. Mani, Ecology and Biogeography of High Altitude Insects (Springer Science and Business Media 2013): 441. ISBN 9789401713399
  22. ^ "Insect Cold Hardiness" in S. R. Leather, K. F. A. Walters, and J. S. Bale, The Ecology of Insect Overwintering (Cambridge University Press 1995): 120. ISBN 9780521556705
  23. ^ Insects at low temperature. Lee, Richard E., Denlinger, David L. New York: Chapman and Hall. 1991. ISBN 0412028018. OCLC 21373194.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: others (link)
  24. ^ "Nellie M. Decottrell Payne" Chicago Tribune (July 22, 1990).