Edward F. Knipling

Edward F. Knipling

Edward Fred Knipling (born March 20, 1909 in Victoria , Texas , † March 17, 2000 in Arlington , Virginia ) was an American entomologist , known for the development of the sterile insect technique for pest control (SIT) .

Life

Knipling grew up on his family's cattle ranch in Texas. He graduated from Texas A&M University and Iowa State University . He then did research as an entomologist for the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) on the New World screwworm fly , a cattle parasite. Here his collaboration with Raymond C. Bushland began . During World War II, he worked in the USDA for the US Army in the fight against insect-borne diseases. He received the US Medal of Merit in 1947 and the British King's Medal for Service in 1948 for the development of effective defense against lice (including carriers of typhus) and other insects with DDT .

After World War II, he received his PhD in entomology from Iowa State University and went to the USDA in Washington, DC as head of the entomology department. At the beginning of the 1950s he continued the development of the SIT that had begun before the war with Bushland. He retired in 1973 but remained an advisor to the USDA until his death.

He was a member of the National Academy of Sciences , and in 1970 he was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences . In 1966 he received the National Medal of Science . In 1995 he received the Japan Prize and in 1992 the World Food Prize with Bushland. In 1970 he was named one of the 100 most important people in the world by Life magazine.

Knipling was married to the biologist Phoebe Hall Knipling, with whom he had five children.

Web links

• Biographical Memoirs National Academy (PDF; 1.4 MB; English)
• Laudation at the World Food Prize