Peter Follett is a research entomologist for the U.S. Department of Agriculture-Agricultural Research Service, U.S. Pacific Basin Research Center, Hawaii. He received a Ph.D. in Entomology at North Carolina State University in 1993. Since joining USDA-ARS in 1997, he has been conducting research to develop new or improved pest management methods and postharvest treatments for tropical fruits and vegetables to control quarantine pests that restrict exports from Hawaii; to increase product quality, marketability, and safety, while reducing treatment costs; and to develop holistic approaches to quarantine security that result in realistic pest-risk analyses and reduced treatment severity.

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The overall goal of Dr. Spencer S. Walse’s research is to ensure the protection and quality of foodstuffs in global distribution channels. Dr. Walse is a research chemist with the United States Department of Agriculture—Agricultural Research Service and an adjunct Professor of Environmental Toxicology at the University of California, Davis. The results of Dr. Walse’s research directly enhance the production, distribution, and safety of foodstuffs, promote and retain access to United States-grown crops to domestic and foreign markets, and protect the United States and its trading partners from the agricultural, ecological, and economic threats posed by quarantine and invasive pests. In general, Dr. Walse develops chemical and non-chemical techniques to control field pests in orchards and raw products, control storage pests in processed products amenable to re-infestation and microbial infection, reduce reliance on postharvest fumigation as a stand-alone pest control measure, and minimize the environmental and ecological impact of pest control.