Name Quentin Wheeler Role Author | Education Ohio State University Fields Entomology, Taxonomy | |
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Preceded by Cornelius B. Murphy, Jr. Alma mater Ohio State University
(B.S.), (M.S.), (Ph.D.) | ||
Quentin Duane Wheeler (born January 31, 1954) is the fourth President of the State University of New York College of Environmental Science and Forestry, in Syracuse, New York. He is an American entomologist, taxonomist, author and newspaper columnist, and is the founding director of the International Institute for Species Exploration. Previously, he had been professor of entomology at Cornell University and Arizona State University, and had served as the Keeper and Head of Entomology at the Natural History Museum in London, and Director of the Division of Environmental Biology at the National Science Foundation.
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Education
Wheeler holds bachelor (1976), master's (1977) and Ph.D. (1980) degrees in entomology from The Ohio State University. His Ph.D. dissertation was entitled, "Comparative morphology, cladistics, and a revised classification of the genera Lymexylidae (Coleoptera), including descriptions of two new genera".
Career
Wheeler was a faculty member for 24 years at Cornell University, where he earned the rank of tenured full professor. He was chair of entomology and director of the Liberty Hyde Bailey Hortorium at Cornell. Wheeler also previously served as the Keeper and Head of Entomology at the Natural History Museum in London from 2004–2006, and was director of the Division of Environmental Biology at the National Science Foundation from 2001-2004.
Wheeler joined Arizona State University in 2006. He was the Virginia M. Ullman Professor of Natural History and the Environment, and founding executive director of the International Institute for Species Exploration. Wheeler served as interim dean of the Division of Natural Sciences in 2006, and in 2007 was appointed to the position of vice president and dean of the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, a position he held until 2011. He has been President of the State University of New York College of Environmental Science and Forestry since January 2014.
Research
Wheeler's research career has focused on the role of species exploration and natural history collections in the exploration and conservation of biodiversity; theory and practice of phylogenetic systematics and cybertaxonomy; the evolution and classification of insects, especially beetles; and public science education. He has received a number of academic honors, including several fellowships. He has had three species of beetles named in his honor, such as Tonerus wheeleri, Eleodes wheeleri, and Agathisium wheeleri.
He is the author of approximately 150 scientific articles and six books, including What on Earth? – 100 of Our Planet's Most Amazing New Species. He has named more than 100 new species and writes a periodic column on new species for The Guardian newspaper in London.
Key works
Among Wheeler's most highly cited articles are:
Wheeler's most widely held books include: