Dr. Fred Whitford Biography and Resume
Dr. Frederick Whitford is the author of
*The Grand Old Man of Purdue University and IndianaAgriculture: A Biography of William Carroll Latta,
*The Queen of American Agriculture: A Biography of Virginia Claypool Meredith, and
“For The Good of the Farmer: A Biography of John Harrison Skinner, Dean of Purdue Agriculture” as well as two other books on pesticide management.
He has authored more than 300 publications and become a popular speaker with more than 4,600 presentations given throughout Indiana and the United States. In recognition of his significant contributions to Extension outreach efforts, he has received numerous awards, including the Frederick L. Hovde Award of Excellence in Educational Service to Rural People of Indiana, the Outstanding Extension Faculty/Specialist Award from Purdue Extension, and an Excellence in Extension Award from the Association of Public and Land-grant Universities. In addition, he was recently named an Honorary Master Farmer by Indiana Prairie Farmer and the Purdue University College of Agriculture.
Dr. Fred Whitford is the Coordinator & Extension Specialist of Purdue Pesticide Programs within the Purdue Cooperative Extension Service.
He received his Ph.D. and M.S. from Iowa State University and his B.S. from Louisiana Tech University.
He transformed a regulatory-based pesticide program into a dynamic Extension education program that helps farmers and commercial applicators understand the wide variety of risks they face and how they can mitigate those risks to successfully manage their business.
Dr. Fred Whitford’s Pesticide Extension program changes the way people think about and use pesticides. His contributions to fostering Extension effectiveness at local, state, and national levels are a great example for other Extension professionals.
Whitford listens to his audience to ascertain what their problems are, identifies and recruits academic and industry specialists to address problems, and develops highly effective instructional materials. His approach helps audiences better understand the problems they face and adopt key management practices that allow them, their families, and their employees to use technology more safely and effectively.
Dr. Whitford works with diverse collaborators, including campus and county-based Extension professionals, and industry professionals. This approach enables him to distill knowledge from many science-based disciplines to create presentations and publications that are easy to understand and help transform the lives and livelihoods of his audiences.
During his career Dr. Whitford has collaborated with more than 200 co-authors, allowing him to tackle issues clientele raise that cross academic disciplines. The result has been an amazing track record of 120 Extension publications and more than 4,600 Extension presentations covering multidisciplinary topics that are in high demand, not only in Indiana, but around the nation.
Purdue Extension’s Pesticide Program has become the nation’s premiere Extension program for pesticide and pesticide-related issues due to Dr. Whitford’s leadership and team building. As a result, the program he’s created encourages practices that improve safety, use pesticides more effectively, better protect the environment, and improve business management practices