معرفی
Brian Fisher is a Curator of Entomology and Patterson Scholar at the California Academy of Sciences. His work focuses on ant biodiversity in Africa and Madagascar, integrating taxonomy, evolution, and conservation. Fisher leads initiatives like Insects and People of the Southwest Indian Ocean (IPSIO), which promotes edible insect farming to address malnutrition and protect habitats. His research emphasizes leveraging ants as ecological indicators and developing tools for biodiversity monitoring.
Education: Earned a biology degree from the University of Iowa, with early fieldwork in Panama and Costa Rica. Transitioned to entomology during studies at the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute.
Research Interests: Ant diversity and evolution, Madagascar’s ecosystems, and applying insect farming to solve food insecurity. Projects include the Breakfast Before Conservation initiative, which scales cricket farming to reduce lemur hunting and deforestation.
Collaborations: Partnerships with Madagascar Biodiversity Center, Entomo Farms, and international scientists. Spearheads genomic and metabarcoding projects to track insect biodiversity across 50 Malagasy sites.
Labs/Teams: Fisher Lab at the California Academy of Sciences and Madagascar-based research networks. Develops open-access resources like AntWeb and AntCat for global ant documentation.
