Lincoln Pierson Brower

Lincoln Pierson Brower (September 10, 1931 – July 17, 2018) was an American entomologist and ecologist, known for his work on monarch butterflies, chemical ecology and conservation.

Life

Brower was born to Bailey and Helen Pierson Brower in Madison, New Jersey, in 1931. He was raised in Chatham Township, New Jersey, where he showed interest in butterflies. In an oral history, he recalled being punished at school, being made to sit all day for skipping a class to go out and collect a species of moth; asked whether it was worth it, he stated "Absolutely".

He met Jane Van Zandt while a student at Chatham High School. They spent two years at Oxford University, the first as Fulbright scholars, in E. B. Ford's ecological genetics laboratory. He then lectured at Amherst College from 1958, rising to the endowed Stone Professorship in 1976. In 1980 he moved to the zoology department at the University of Florida. On retiring in 1997, he moved to Sweet Briar College as a research professor.

A butterfly and moth collector from an early age, he began studying the biology of the monarch butterfly while a postgraduate at Yale in 1954, and became a world expert on the species over six decades. He contributed to over 200 papers and 8 films, combining research, public education and conservation work. Unlike some popular sources, Brower did not suppose the monarch to be in danger of extinction, though he agreed that its migration across America was threatened.

Honors and awards

Honorary Life Member of the Lepidopterists' Society, 1990 Marsh Award for Insect Conservation, the Royal Entomological Society, 2007 The E. O. Wilson Award of the Center for Biological Diversity, 2016 Fellow of the Entomological Society of America, 2017 Research associate of the Smithsonian Institution Research associate of the McGuire Center for Lepidoptera at the University of Florida Henry Bates Award of the Association for Tropical Lepidoptera Fellow of the Royal Entomological Society Fellow of the Explorers Club Reconocimiento a la Conservacion de la Naturaleza from the Mexican federal government