Dr. Joel R. Coats has been on the faculty of the Department of Entomology at Iowa State University for 29 years. He served a five-year term as Department Chair and is currently Interim Chair of that department.
Joel’s areas of research and teaching specialization are insect toxicology and the environmental toxicology and chemistry of pesticides. A native of Ohio, Dr. Coats received his B.S. degree in zoology (chemistry minor) from Arizona State University, and he received his graduate degrees in entomology (chemistry minor) from the University of Illinois, specializing in insecticide toxicology, as a student of Robert L. Metcalf. He was a visiting professor in the Department of Environmental Biology at the University of Guelph, Ontario, Canada for two years.
He has served as major professor for 36 graduate students who are currently employed in the fields of entomology or toxicology. His scientific publication record includes seven books, 31 book chapters, six review articles, and 117 articles in peer-reviewed journals.
Dr. Coats teaches all or portions of five graduate-level courses in the area of insect toxicology or environmental toxicology and chemistry. He is also a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. In 2006, he received the International Award for Research in Agrochemicals from the American Chemical Society’s Agrochemicals Division.
(updated October, 2007)