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Brigadier General
John L. Putnam
Permanent Professor 2006–2016
B.S., Michigan State University
M.S., University of Florida
Ph.D., University Maryland
John Putnam, the Academy’s 84th Permanent Professor, was born in Killeen, Texas, in 1956. The son of an Army officer, John spent his childhood years at many Army posts. In 1978 he graduated with Honors from Michigan State University, East Lansing, with a Bachelor’s degree in Entomology. Upon graduation, he joined the US Peace Corps and worked in Thailand from 1978 to 1981, where he learned to speak Thai and worked as an Entomologist for the Thai Malaria Control Division. John then entered the University of Florida, Gainesville, and earned a Master’s degree in Entomology in 1984. At Florida he studied the host-seeking behavior of the common malaria mosquito. In 1986, following a brief stint at a Florida mosquito control district, John was directly commissioned into the Air Force’s Biomedical Sciences Corps as a Medical Entomologist. His first assignment, 1986–1989, was to the Aerial Spray Flight, 356th Tactical Airlift Squadron, Rickenbacker Air National Guard Base, Columbus, OH. The Spray Flight trained for and studied pesticide application with C-130 aircraft to control disease outbreaks. In 1989, through a Biomedical Sciences Corps scholarship, John began a doctoral program in Medical Entomology at the University of Maryland. For his dissertation he studied the feeding behavior of the yellow fever mosquito and was awarded his PhD in 1993. His follow-on assignment was to HQ Air Mobility Command, Scott AFB, IL, 1992–1995. As the Command Entomologist, John oversaw the Command’s base-level pest management programs. In 1996 John joined the Air Force Academy’s Department of Biology as an Instructor and later Associate Professor and Deputy for Academic Operations. For the year 2000, John completed a sabbatical as the Deputy Chief of Programming for the Academy’s 10th Civil Engineering Group, where he started a biological control program for the base’s noxious weeds. He then returned to the Biology Department as a Professor and the Deputy Department Head, 2001–2003. In 2003 John was assigned to the Air Force Institute for Operational Health at Brooks City-Base, TX. As Chief, Military-Civilian Partnerships, John first worked to unite Air Force and civilian preparatory efforts for terrorism. Then, as Chief, Medical Zoology, Epidemiological Services, John led the Air Force’s medical zoology consultative and investigative service. While at Brooks, John deployed to Tallil Air Base, Iraq, as Chief of the Leishmania Surveillance and Investigation Team. His team monitored and studied sand fly–borne disease, leading to several noteworthy publications on the impact of sand flies on US military operations. In 2006 John was appointed Permanent Professor and Head of the Air Force Academy’s Department of Biology. In 2012 he started a sabbatical year at the Department of Entomology, Walter Reed Army Institute of Research, Silver Spring, MD, to conduct a field trial in Thailand of control techniques for the yellow fever mosquito. During his tenure at the Academy, John sustained a community of biologists who engaged cadets through classroom experience, independent study, and summer internships in support of national security interests. John was promoted to brigadier general and retired in 2016.
John is enjoying his Colorado retirement by mountain biking and snowboarding.