Barry Pittendrigh

Barry R. Pittendrigh has worked in the area of international development, specifically in West Africa, over the past decade. He, his laboratory team, and his collaborators spread across five countries in West Africa, are dedicated to developing environmentally benign pest control solutions to minimize the populations of pest insects that attack cowpea. Cowpea is an important protein source for tens of millions (some source say between a hundred and two hundred million) of people that live under $2 a day. Thus, controlling these pest populations has tremendous potential to have significant positive impacts on a large number of the poorest people in West Africa. He is also the co-founder of Scientific Animations Without Borders (SAWBO) and the Sustainable Development Virtual Knowledge Interface (SusDeViKI), two strategies that he hopes can help play a role in achieving these above pest control goals.