Whitman Barrett is a PhD student in the Soil and Crop Sciences Section of the School of Integrative Plant Science at Cornell University. His work focuses on the reuse of human excreta in agriculture, with the goal of improving smallholder farmers’ productivity and resilience to climate change. He conducted fieldwork in Tamil Nadu in the summer of 2022, completing interviews and farm visits with farmers using soil amendments derived from human excreta. He is passionate about interdisciplinary research in the pursuit of agricultural sustainability.

Prior to beginning his graduate studies at Cornell, Whitman served as a Peace Corps Volunteer in Togo, where he primarily worked on projects related to soil conservation and agricultural education. Whitman received his BA from Oberlin College and his Master of Urban and Regional Planning from the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities.