Tropical Thursday - Talk #3

Listen in as Brian Brown, Curator, Entomology and Co-director, Urban Nature Research Center, and Peter Houlihan, Technical Lead, XPRIZE Rainforest, discuss the Importance of studying biodiversity on every level.

Dr. Brian V. Brown,  head of the Natural History Museum's Entomology Department and Curator of Entomology

Dr. Brown has pursued an interest in insects since he was 5, when he created an insect zoo in his backyard in Toronto, Canada. He received both his bachelor's and master's degrees at the University of Guelph in Ontario, and then earned his doctorate at the University of Alberta. After receiving his Ph.D., he spent two years as a Postdoctoral Fellow at the University of Maryland and the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C., prior to joining the museum staff in 1993. Brown's research centers on the systematics, evolution, and natural history of phorid flies, especially the parasitoid species known as "ant-decapitating flies" and "bee-killing flies." He has collected specimens and conducted research in many countries throughout Southeast Asia, North America and Europe, but especially in Central and South America.
Through his work he has discovered and described about 500 new species of phorids, and he has investigated their varied lifestyles. He has worked extensively on fossil species preserved in amber, especially from the 40-million-year-old Baltic amber of Europe.

Peter Houlhan, Technical Lead, XPRIZE Rainforest

Peter Houlhan specializes in planning and leading expeditions into understudied and threatened rainforests all over the world for conservation. Regularly operating in more than 20 countries across Africa, the Americas, and Asia, Peter is passionate about working with local scientists and communities, and inspiring others to learn about our natural world. He has lived and worked extensively throughout the tropics, where he has led nearly 50 large scale expeditions and managed long term conservation programs, particularly in Borneo, Madagascar, the Amazon, Central America, and the Congo Basin. Globally, Peter's research, conservation work, and science com