Brian Joseph Enquist is an American biologist and academic. Enquist is a professor of biology at the

University of Arizona The University of Arizona (Arizona, U of A, UArizona, or UA) is a Public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Tucson, Arizona, United States. Founded in 1885 by the 13th Arizona Territorial Legislature, it ...

. He is also external professor at the

Santa Fe Institute The Santa Fe Institute (SFI) is an independent, nonprofit theoretical research institute located in Santa Fe, New Mexico, United States and dedicated to the multidisciplinary study of the fundamental principles of complex adaptive systems, inc ...

. He is a biologist, plant biologist and an

ecologist Ecology () is the natural science of the relationships among living organisms and their environment. Ecology considers organisms at the individual, population, community, ecosystem, and biosphere levels. Ecology overlaps with the closely re ...

. He was elected as a Fellow of the

American Association for the Advancement of Science The American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) is a United States–based international nonprofit with the stated mission of promoting cooperation among scientists, defending scientific freedom, encouraging scientific responsib ...

(AAAS) in 2012 and the

Ecological Society of America The Ecological Society of America (ESA) is a professional organization of ecological scientists. Based in the United States and founded in 1915, ESA publications include peer-reviewed journals, newsletters, fact sheets, and teaching resources. I ...

(ESA) in 2018.

Research

His lab works on developing a more integrative, quantitative, and predictive framework for biology, community ecology, and large-scale ecology. His research is notable for three areas in biology and ecology: (1) ''Scaling in Biology'' – Enquist is notable in biology for his work with Geoffrey West and James H. Brown, in understanding the origin and diversity of organismal form, function, and diversity by developing general models for the origin of

allometry Allometry (Ancient Greek "other", "measurement") is the study of the relationship of body size to shape, anatomy, physiology and behaviour, first outlined by Otto Snell in 1892, by D'Arcy Thompson in 1917 in ''On Growth and Form'' and by Jul ...

and scaling laws in biology. This research, shows how general scaling laws underlie organismal form, function, and diversity and can be used to 'scale up' biological processes from genes to cells to ecosystems. This work is also the foundation for the

Metabolic Theory of Ecology The metabolic theory of ecology (MTE) is the ecological component of the more general Metabolic Scaling Theory and Kleiber's law. It posits that the metabolic rate of organisms is the fundamental biological rate that governs most observed pattern ...

. (2) ''Functional Plant Ecology and Trait-based biology'' – Enquist has worked to develop Trait Driver Theory or TDT with Van M. Savage, Jon Norberg and colleagues. TDT provides a general theory of Functional ecology in that it provides a baseline for (i) recasting the predictions of ecological theories based on species richness (see

Coexistence theory Coexistence theory is a framework to understand how competitor traits can maintain species diversity and stave-off competitive exclusion even among similar species living in ecologically similar environments. Coexistence theory explains the s ...

) in terms of the shape of trait distributions and (ii) integrating

Metabolic Scaling Theory Metabolism (, from ''metabolē'', "change") is the set of life-sustaining chemical reactions in organisms. The three main functions of metabolism are: the conversion of the energy in food to energy available to run cellular processes; the co ...

how specific traits, including body size, and functional diversity then ‘scale up’ to influence ecosystem functioning and the dynamics of species assemblages across climate gradients. Further, TDT offers a novel framework to integrate trait, metabolic/allometric, and species-richness-based approaches and theory to better predict functional biogeography and how assemblages of species have and may respond to climate change.

Education and honors

Education

Enquist received a

Bachelor of Arts A Bachelor of Arts (abbreviated B.A., BA, A.B. or AB; from the Latin ', ', or ') is the holder of a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate program in the liberal arts, or, in some cases, other disciplines. A Bachelor of Arts deg ...

in Biology in 1991 from

Colorado College Colorado College is a private college, private liberal arts colleges in the United States, liberal arts college in Colorado Springs, Colorado. Founded in 1874 by Thomas Nelson Haskell in his daughter's memory, the college offers over 40 majors a ...

and a

Ph.D. A Doctor of Philosophy (PhD, DPhil; or ) is a terminal degree that usually denotes the highest level of academic achievement in a given discipline and is awarded following a course of graduate study and original research. The name of the deg ...

in Biology in 1998 from the

University of New Mexico The University of New Mexico (UNM; ) is a public research university in Albuquerque, New Mexico, United States. Founded in 1889 by the New Mexico Territorial Legislature, it is the state's second oldest university, a flagship university in th ...

Honors

*George Mercer Award (

), (2001) *Honorary Degree, PhD in Science,

, (2007). *Eminent Ecologist, Kellogg Biological Station, (2010) *Visiting Fellow

Oxford Martin School The Oxford Martin School is a research and policy unit based in the Social Sciences Division of the University of Oxford. It was founded in June 2005 as the James Martin 21st Century School and is located in the original building of the Indian ...

, Oxford University, UK, (2017) *ESA FellowESA Fellow
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, (2018)

References

External links

Home Page
* * ttps://web.archive.org/web/20160207224317/http://www.aspenideas.org/session/climate-change-and-fate-our-forests" 2014 Aspen Ideas Festival - Climate change and the fate of our forestsbr>2017 Oxford Martin School Lectures - The concept of time in biology, and the unity of life

Enquist's 2015 public lecture 'Life on Earth: By Chance or By Law?'
{{DEFAULTSORT:Enquist, Brian Colorado College alumni University of New Mexico alumni Living people American ecologists 1969 births University of Arizona faculty Place of birth missing (living people) Fellows of the Ecological Society of America