Dr. Whittam received his Ph.D. from the University of Arizona in 1981 and was a Postdoctoral Fellow at the University of Rochester.  In 1990, Dr. Whittam received a Research Career Development Award from NIH.  He is a Fellow of the American Academy of Microbiology.  Dr. Whittam was a faculty member in the Biology Department and the Institute of Molecular Evolutionary Genetics at Penn State from 1985-2000.  He joined the faculty at the National Food Safety & Toxicology Center at Michigan State University in 2001 where he holds academic appointments in the Department of Food Sciences & Human Nutrition and the Department of Microbiology & Molecular Genetics.  His research has been supported by grants from the National Institutes of Health, the National Science Foundation, and the United States Department of Agriculture.

Education