After 43 years of studying insects, a Penn State researcher has won an award that a dean said is equivalent to a Nobel Prize in agriculture.

The years of closely examining creepy crawlers paid off in a big way for Penn State researcher Jim Tumlinson when he won the prestigious Wolf Award in Agriculture last week for his research.

"This is recognition that doesn't come very often," Robert Steele, dean of the College of Agricultural Sciences, said about Tumlinson's prestigious award.

Tumlinson, the director for the university's Center for Chemical Ecology, won the Wolf Award with his co-researcher from the U.S. Department of Agriculture, W. Joe Lewis, for his research involving plant-insect interaction and pest management.

Tumlinson is only the second Penn State individual to win the award.

Penn State professor John Almquist won the prize in 1981 for his research into artificial insemination in dairy cattle.

Steele said Tumlinson is a worthy recipient of the award.

"I'm not surprised to see him win with his work recognized, valued and respected worldwide," Steele said.

The Wolf Foundation, based in Israel, began giving out awards in 1979 in agriculture, chemistry, mathematics, medicine, physics and the arts.

Tumlinson and Lewis share the annual award with British researcher John Pickett.

"The impressive contributions of Lewis and Tumlinson in developing and applying scientific understanding have shifted the pest management agenda worldwide," according to a press release issued by the Wolf Foundation.

Penn State Department of Entomology head Gary Felton said that Tumlinson is a "magnet for students" and said that he has seen an immediate reaction from many prospective students after Tumlinson won the award.

"He has broadened the international recognition of the program here," he said.

"Hiring him here really put us on map on an international scale," he also said.

Tumlinson, who says he has been too busy to celebrate his win, said he is "surprised and very pleased."

He said that his research has continued down an environmentally conscious path ever since he graduated from Mississippi State University in 1969 with a doctorate in organic chemistry.

"My whole career has been aimed toward more environmentally safe, ecologically sound methods for insect and pest management -- to get people to move away from pesticides," he said.

Tumlinson said that he will be sharing the $100,000 prize money along with the three other recipients of the award.

The winners will be presented with their award by Israeli president Shimon Peres in Jerusalem, Israel, on May 25.

Tumlinson said that he credits his colleagues for their important contributions to his research and could not have done it alone.

"I didn't do it all myself. I had a lot of really good students, collaborators and colleagues contributing to it," he said.

"It was not just Joe and I. We worked with a lot of really good people that made it all possible," he added.