Richard Frankham

Richard (Dick) Frankham (born April 4, 1942) is an Australian biologist, author, and academic. He is an Emeritus Professor in Biology at Macquarie University in Sydney, Australia.

Frankham's research interests are primarily in the evolutionary genetics of small populations, spanning the fields of quantitative genetics, animal breeding, conservation genetics, and conservation biology. He is the senior author of five textbooks, including Introduction to Conservation Genetics in 2002. A Primer of Conservation Genetics in 2004, Genetic Management of Fragmented Animal and Plant Populations in 2017, and A Practical Guide for Genetic Management of Fragmented Animal and Plant Populations in 2019. There have been five translations of their textbooks into Chinese, Japanese, Italian, Portuguese, and Korean.

He is the recipient of the M.J.D. White Medal of the Genetics Society of Australasia for his career contributions, a Ulysses S. Seal Award for Innovation in Conservation from CPSG and a Whitley Special Commendation for his books on conservation

Early life and education Frankham was born in Singleton, New South Wales, Australia. He earned a Bachelor of Science in Agriculture with first-class honours from the University of Sydney in 1964, followed in 1968 by a Ph.D. in animal genetics from the same institution, supervised by J. Stuart F. Barker.

Research Frankham's research has covered a range of topics in quantitative genetics/animal breeding, population genetics, conservation biology, and especially conservation genetics. It has involved primary research papers using Drosophila fruit flies as a model species, computer modeling, analytical theory, Darwinian syntheses, meta-analyses, and reviews.

Frankham has authored or co-authored 186 publications that have been cited widely. He was ranked 2715th among global scientists for scientific impact according to a joint publication by John Ioannidis and his colleagues, in 2020.

Genetic management Frankham and his collaborators are known for significantly influencing the genetic management of fragmented populations, providing important contributions to the practical management of threatened species. They identified lack of gene flow in fragmented populations and lack of remedial management actions as one of the most important, largely unaddressed problems in conservation biology, identified the primary cause of this problems as fears that crossing populations would be harmful (outbreeding depression), and advocated for a paradigm shift in genetic management of fragmented populations.

Frankham's team provided the experimental test in a living organism of what is now the recommended genetic management procedure for threatened species (minimizing mean kinship).

Convention of biodiversity From 2020 to 2023, Frankham has been involved in attempts to strengthen the genetic content of the Convention on Biodiversity through committee work and publications. He elucidated the potential genetic harm to species if the proposed genetic goals and targets were inculcated for the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) and proposed better alternative indicators.

Awards and fellowships 1997 - 2002 – Scientific Fellow, Zoological Society of London 2017 – MJD White Medal, Genetics Society of Australasia 2019 – Whitley Book Award, Royal Zoological Society of New South Wales 2023 – Ulysses S. Seal Award for Innovation in Conservation from CPSG