Raymond C. Bushland

Dr. Raymond C. Bushland was an American entomologist. Along with his colleague, Dr. Edward F. Knipling, he received the 1992 World Food Prize for the breakthrough development of the Sterile insect technique for eradicating the threat posed by pests to the livestock and crops that make up the world's food supply,

Education and early career

Dr. Bushland was born in Minnesota on October 5, 1910, and grew up in South Dakota, where he graduated from South Dakota State University in 1932 with a degree in entomology and zoology. He earned an M.S. in entomology in 1934, and began working at the United States Department of Agriculture laboratory in Dallas, Texas, researching screwworm larvae in an effort to better treat the wounds that the insect were inflicting on cattle herds.

A transfer to the USDA's Menard, Texas, facility in 1937 introduced him to Dr. Knipling, who hypothesized that sterilized screwworms could cut reproduction levels in populations. Two years later, however, Dr. Bushland moved on to a project to counteract typhus-bearing lice, and later, as a U.S. Army researcher in New Guinea and the Philippines, devised techniques to prevent chigger mites from spreading typhus through human populations. He received the United States Typhus Commission Award in 1949 for his efforts.

Development of SIT

Returning to USDA research in the 1950s, he studied the levels of toxicity and chemical residue that insecticides left in the meat and milk of treated livestock. As director of the Kerrville, Texas, laboratory, he oversaw screwworm research – developing a method to artificially rear large quantities of screwworms in the laboratory – and began test-sterilizing screwworms using an Army x-ray apparatus. Together, Drs. Bushland and Knipling developed the framework of SIT and began applying it to screwworm populations in Florida. By 1958, the species had been eradicated in Florida, and the same results were met across the America Southwest by 1962.

Dr. Bushland continued to oversee and further screwworm research and provided leadership and technical advice to program managers and producers to maintain and extend the success of his and Dr. Knipling's original project.

Awards and Recognition

He retired from the USDA in 1974, having received the Distinguished Service Award for his years of research with the department in 1967. In addition to the World Food Prize, he also shared with Dr. Knipling a Special Science Award from the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations in 1991 in commemoration of their joint achievement in pest control.

Dr. Bushland died on January 29, 1995, in Kerrville, Texas, the site of the laboratory where he developed the technology that continues to carry his legacy throughout the world. In 1999, the Knipling-Bushland Southwest Animal Research Foundation at Texas A&M was established to honor both men's achievements and fund ongoing research and education.