Purdue welcomes back former professor as endowed entomology chair

At Purdue, Pittendrigh will focus much of his efforts on using his knowledge of insect genomics and evolution of resistance to pesticides. He works between model species, such as the fruit fly, and economically important species.

“My core area of research is the molecular basis of pesticide resistance and I am currently focused on evolutionarily conserved pathways in insects that play a role in such resistance,” Pittendrigh said. “Recent work from my laboratory has shown that these pathways are an Achilles’ heel for resistance. That is, they are, in some cases, targets for compounds that can be used to inhibit resistance. I’m interested in applying some of our findings toward management of pesticide resistance in urban pest populations.”

He’s also interested in communicating science to international audiences. Pittendrigh and his longer-term collaborator, professor Julia Bello-Bravo, who will join Purdue’s Department of Agricultural Sciences Education and Communication, founded and launched Scientific Animations Without Borders (SAWBO) in 2011. Bello-Bravo and Pittendrigh co-lead SAWBO, which transforms Extension information into animations in multiple languages that can be used for free for educational purposes. 

SAWBO content exists in more than 200 languages, has been used in more than 100 countries, touched well over 45 million people and been used by organizations such as the Food and Agricultural Organization, the World Health Organization, USAID and many large and small non-governmental organizations globally. In West Africa and East Africa, SAWBO materials are on television regularly for tens of millions of viewers.

The adaptability of the SAWBO program recently led Bello-Bravo, John Medendorp (also joining Purdue from MSU), and Pittendrigh to receive a 12-month, $1.6-million USAID grant (called SAWBO RAPID) to tackle educational messaging associated with the secondary impacts of COVID-19.

“Within the context of Purdue’s Urban and Industrial Pest Management Center, I see excellent opportunities to draw upon SAWBO’s tools to develop educational approaches that can be highly inclusive of people across language and cultural groups globally toward issues associated with urban challenges,” Pittendrigh said.

Stephen Cameron, head of Purdue’s Department of Entomology, said Pittendrigh’s many talents will be key for raising the stature of the university’s urban entomology efforts.

“Barry has a unique combination of talents – a world-leader in the science of pesticide resistance, an innovator in how we communicate science to the public, and an ability to build teams second to none – that were vital to moving Urban Entomology forward as a discipline,” Cameron said. “Two phenomena will only gain pace throughout the coming decades – the shift of human populations to cities (urbanization) and the evolution of pesticide resistance in pest insect species.  As his program sits right at the intersection of these two trends – urbanization and resistance, Barry is the ideal leader to tackle the problems which they pose.”