Frederick H. Buttel (1948–2005) was William H. Sewell Professor of Rural Sociology at the University of Wisconsin–Madison. He earned his B.S. and M.S. degrees at the University of Wisconsin–Madison, his master's degree in forestry and environmental studies at Yale University and his Ph.D. in sociology at the former institution. He served as a faculty member at Michigan State University and Cornell University, where he directed the Biology and Society Program.
He was elected a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science(1987), was president of the Rural Sociological Society (1990-1991, the Agriculture, Food and Human Values Society (1998-1999) and the Environmental and Society Research Commnittee of the International Sociological Association,[1] and was editor of the journal Research in Rural Sociology and Development[1] and co-editor of the journal Society and Natural Resources. Buttel was a scholar in rural sociology whose research focused on four major areas of study: the sociology of agriculture, environmental sociology, technological change in agriculture, and national and global activism relating to environmental and agricultural policies.[2][3][4]
After his death, the International Sociological Association established in his honor the Frederick H. Buttel International Award for Distinguished Scholarship in Environmental Sociology.[5][6] The chair he held at Wisconsin was renamed the Buttel-Sewell Professorship.[7]