Joel Coats, Charles F. Curtiss Distinguished Professor of Entomology, in the Department of Entomology at ISU recently was conferred with the title of Fellow of the American Chemical Society. He was presented with the honor in a ceremony at the National ACS Meeting in San Diego this Fall.
Dr. Coats grew up on a farm in Ohio and received his B.S. in Zoology (Chemistry minor) from Arizona State University. His graduate training was at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, receiving his M.S. and Ph.D. in Entomology (Chemistry minor), with specialization in insecticide toxicology and environmental toxicology. Professor Robert L. Metcalf served as his major professor there. He was a Visiting Professor for two years in the Department of Environmental Biology at the University of Guelph in Ontario, Canada. He has been on the faculty at Iowa State University since 1978 and served as Department Chairman for seven years. He teaches in five graduate courses: Insecticide Toxicology, Pesticides in the Environment, Special Topics in Insect Toxicology, and portions of Principles of Toxicology, and Laboratory Methods in Toxicology. Joel has served as major professor for 46 graduate students who graduated from his lab, plus 7 current ones, and has served as advisor for 13 postdocs.
Joel’s research program includes two main areas: (1) insect toxicology and (2) environmental toxicology and environmental chemistry of agrochemicals. His scientific publications include 14 books, 9 review articles, 50 book chapters, and over 150 peer-reviewed journal articles, and he holds 9 patents and has 6 pending.
He received the International Award for Research in Agrochemicals from the American Chemical Society Agrochemicals Division; he is Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, and a Fellow of the Entomological Society of America and Fellow of the Agrochemicals Division of ACS. In 2013, he received the Alumni Achievement Award from the University of Illinois College of Liberal Arts and Sciences. In 2015, he received the Margaret Ellen White Award for Mentoring Graduate Students, from the Graduate College at Iowa State University. In 2017, he received the John Doull Toxicology Award, Society of Toxicology’s Central States Chapter. In 2018, he received the C.V. Riley Award for Research Achievements in Entomology, Entomological Society of America’s North Central Branch.