Brian J. Enquist

Brian Joseph Enquist is an American biologist and academic. Enquist is a Professor of Biology at the University of Arizona . He is also external professor at the Santa Fe Institute. He is a broadly trained biologist, plant biologist and an ecologist. He is a Fulbright Fellow, has been listed in Popular Science Magazine as one of their "Brilliant 10", and was elected as a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) in 2012 and the Ecological Society of America (ESA) in 2018.

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 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.

(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) in terms of the shape of trait distributions and (ii) integrating Metabolic Scaling Theory 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.

(3) Macroecology – Enquist has worked extensively on assessing the large scale biogeographic and evolutionary drivers of differing facets of biological diversity including functional and phylogenetic diversity. This work has worked to developing novel theoretical and informatics approaches that build from scaling principles and functional biology. Some of this work has focused on forecasting and visualizing the fate of biological diversity and ecosystem functioning under differing climate change and land use change scenarios. This work includes building novel approaches to complex ecological problems – utilizing integrative computation, big data, statistical, and visualisation tools to visualize and analyze biological data and to assess how climate change will influence the distribution of diversity and functioning of forests and ecosystems .

His lab's research utilizes differing approaches including: developing theory and informatics infrastructure, field work, big datasets, scaling, empirically measuring numerous attributes of organismal form and function, utilizing physiological and trait-based techniques, and assessing macroecological and large-scale patterns. His collaborative group often works in contrasting environments including tropical forests, on elevation gradients, and in high alpine ecosystems.

Education

Enquist received a bachelors with distinction in Biology in 1991 before obtaining his M.S. and PhD in Biology in 1995 and 1998 respectively:

• Bachelor of Arts, Biology, 1991, Colorado College
• Ph.D., Biology, 1998, University of New Mexico

Honors

• ESA FellowEcological Society of America, (2018)
• Visiting FellowOxford Martin School, Oxford University, UK, (2017)
• FellowAmerican Association for the Advancement of Science, Fellow, (2012)
• College of Science Galileo Circle Fellow , University of Arizona (2011)
• Eminent Ecologist, Kellogg Biological Station , (2010)
• International Mobility Fellow, Charles University, Center for Theoretical Study, Prague, Czech Republic (2009).
• CNRS Associate Research Fellow, Montpellier, France, (2009).
• Honorary Degree, PhD in Science, Colorado College, (2007).
• Popular Science Magazine – "Top 10 Brilliant Young Minds. (2004).
• National Science Foundation CAREER ‘Young Investigators’ Award (2002-2007).
• George Mercer Award (Ecological Society of America), (2001)
• Fulbright Fellowship, Costa Rica (1995-1996).