Florida Tech’s Gordon Patterson Wins Presidential Book Award

– Dr. Gordon Patterson, Florida Tech professor of humanities and communication, won the 2005 Presidential Book Award at the Florida Historical Society’s
Annual Meeting in Palm Beach on May 20. He was honored for The Mosquito Wars: A History of Mosquito Control in Florida.

Amazon.com describes the book, published by University Press of Florida, as “a comprehensive and insightful analysis of the development of human efforts to
wage war on mosquitoes in 20th-century Florida.” Patterson drew on archival and published records, and interviews to provide a context for understanding
how mosquito control shaped the environment of contemporary Florida.

Patterson is also the author of Florida Institute of Technology, a pictorial history. He is a past chair of the social science section of the Florida
Academy of Science, a former director of the Florida Historical Society and a past Florida Defenders of the Environment Board of Advisors member.