Naomi Pierce

Naomi E. Pierce (born 1954) is an American entomologist and evolutionary biologist who currently serves as the Sidney A. and John. H. Hessel Professor of Biology at Harvard University. She studies plant-herbivore coevolution and is a world authority on butterflies. Education Pierce earned her B.S. in Biology at Yale (1972–76) and her Ph.D. in Biology at Harvard (1977–83). Pierce was a Fulbright Scholar in Zoology from Harvard University to Griffith University in 1983 and a MacArthur Fellow in 1988 with Ecology and Evolutionary/Environmental Biology as area of focus.

Career Pierce is the Hessel Professor of Biology and Curator of Lepidoptera in the Department of Organismic and Evolutionary Biology at Harvard University.

From 1984–86, Pierce was Research Lecturer at Christ Church, Oxford and a NATO Research Fellow at Oxford's Department of Zoology. In 1986 she moved to Princeton University as Assistant (1986–89) and Associate (1989–90) Professor of Biology. In 1991 Pierce was appointed Hessel Professor and Curator of Lepidoptera at Harvard University.

The Pierce Lab studies topics including the evolution of symbioses, phylogeny, biogeography, systematics, plant-insect-microbe interactions, and biodiversity and life history evolution of insects. Pierce and collaborators Corrie Moreau and Charles D. Bell were the first to establish the origin of ants at 140 to 168 million years ago using molecular sequence data, 40 million years older than previous estimates.

In 2018, the entomopathogenic fungus Ophiocordyceps naomipierceae was named in Pierce's honor.

Personal life She is married to evolutionary biologist and historian of science Andrew Berry (biologist), and they have twin children.

Selected awards Elected to the National Academy of Sciences, 2023 International Prize for Biology, 2019 American Academy of Arts and Sciences Fellow, 2018 Entomological Society of America Fellow, 2011 American Association for the Advancement of Science Fellow, 2007 Senior Fellow of the Society of Fellows, Harvard University MacArthur Fellow, 1988 Fulbright Scholar, 1983