Prof. Whelton is an internationally recognized environmental engineer with more than 20 years of experience in the infrastructure and public health disciplines. By leading innovative research teams, he has advanced and positively impacted the safety of communities and workers in and outside the nation. In recent years, his team has unearthed previously undocumented human health and environmental threats associated with plastic manufacture, use, and then innovated technologies and procedures to minimize those risks. He has often been called into nationally significant disasters to provide executive level support. Some disasters include the Freedom Industries Chemical Spill, Camp Fire, Marshall Fire, and fuel contamination in Hawaii, among others. At Purdue, he founded and leads the Center for Plumbing Safety, an industrial consortium, and several multi-institution research efforts. Prof. Whelton’s leadership has positively changed how U.S. federal (EPA, CDC, NRC, NIOSH, NIST, FEMA, Army, Navy), state, county, and local government agencies act to protect health and safety. In 2022, his experience was sought by President Biden’s Administration and previously by Canadian communities and the Ministry of Health in response to wildfires.
