Pesticide Expert Witness

Insecticide Toxicology & Environmental Toxicology

Joel Coats is Distinguished Professor of Entomology and Toxicology Emeritus in the Department of Plant Pathology, Entomology and Microbiology at Iowa State University. He is originally from 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 taught 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  52 graduate students and as adviser for  14 postdoctoral research associates.

Dr. Coats’ research program includes two main areas: (1) insect toxicology and (2) environmental toxicology and environmental chemistry of agrochemicals. His research in the insect toxicology area is focused primarily on natural products as insecticides and insect repellents, including investigations of their spectrum of activity, mechanisms of action, metabolism, synthesis of biorational derivatives and analogs, quantitative structure-activity relationships. His research on the environmental toxicology and chemistry of agrochemicals includes work onneonicotinoids, pyrethroids, organophosphates, carbamates, as well as fungicides and herbicides.

His 200 scientific publications include  15 books,  9 review articles,   51 book chapters, and over  172 peer-reviewed journal articles; he also holds  21 patents.

He has received two recent awards from the American Chemical Society: Kenneth A. Spencer Award for contributions to Agricultural and Food Chemistry (2023) and the Award for Innovation in the Chemistry of Agriculture (2022),  as well as the International Award for Research in Agrochemicals from the American Chemical Society Agrochemicals Division, and he is a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, a Fellow of the American Chemical Society, and a Fellow of the Entomological Society of America.  He also has received the Alumni Achievement Award from the University of Illinois College of Liberal Arts and Sciences.

ENTOX, Inc. was established in 1999 to provide the best possible service to clients:

1. Litigation Supportregarding pesticide cases of many types, including non-target and off-target effects, residues, toxic tort, environmental contamination, efficacy of products and patent infringement. See Litigation History Most commonly I have provided expert technical opinions in report form (30 since 1985). I have also been deposed numerous times and have testified in court as an expert witness.
2. Technical Consultingon all types of pesticides and insect repellents, including synthetic and botanical insecticides, acaricides, fumigants, and repellents; toxicity, mechanisms of action, environmental and comparative toxicology, ecological risk assessment, persistence of pesticides, movement in the environment, and residue analysis.
3. Reviewingof research projects, programs and laboratories, as well as grant proposals, reports and other documents about the efficacy, methods for testing, safety, environmental fate and effects, and bioremediation of pesticides.