Rate My Professor George Heimpel

George Heimpel is the Distinguished McKnight University Professor in the Department of Entomology at the University of Minnesota Twin Cities. He received a B.S. in Conservation and Resource Studies from the University of California, Berkeley in 1988, an M.S. in Entomology and Applied Ecology from the University of Delaware in 1991, and a Ph.D. in Entomology from the University of California, Davis in 1995. After completing a two-year postdoctoral fellowship in the Department of Entomology at the University of Wisconsin-Madison from 1995 to 1997, he joined the University of Minnesota as an assistant professor in 1997, was promoted to associate professor in 2003, and to full professor in 2010. Heimpel holds additional appointments as a Collaborating Scientist with the Charles Darwin Foundation in the Galápagos Islands and Permanent Researcher at Ecuador's National Institute of Biodiversity.

Heimpel's research specializes in parasitoid biology, biological control, and biodiversity conservation. His projects include classical biological control of the bird-parasitic fly Philornis downsi threatening Darwin's finches in the Galápagos Islands using parasitoid wasps, biological control of the soybean aphid in North America, and control of the invasive weed garlic mustard with European weevils. He co-authored the textbook Biological Control: Ecology and Applications, published by Cambridge University Press in 2017. Key publications encompass Dynamic host feeding by the parasitoid Aphytis melinus: the balance between current and future reproduction (Journal of Animal Ecology, 1995), The evolution of host-feeding behaviour in insect parasitoids (Biological Reviews, 1996), and Shifting paradigms in the history of classical biological control (BioControl, 2018). Heimpel has earned major awards including the Filippo Silvestri Memorial Award for excellence in insect biological control in 2024, the Distinguished McKnight University Professorship in 2015, the McKnight Land-Grant Professorship from 2001 to 2003, and the Faculty Award for Mentorship in Entomology in 2017. He served as President of the International Organization of Biological Control Global Branch in 2018 and teaches courses on biological control and insects in human history.