Anurag Agrawal (ecologist)


Anurag Agrawal is an American professor of ecology, evolutionary biology, and entomology who has written over a 150 peer-reviewed articles, which earned him an h-index of 74. He is the author of a popular science book, , and is currently the James A. Perkins Professor of Environmental Studies at Cornell University.

Life

Agrawal was born in 1972 in Allentown, Pennsylvania. He obtained both BA and MA degrees from the University of Pennsylvania after working with Daniel Janzen. In 1999 he earned a Ph.D. in population biology from the University of California, Davis working with Rick Karban. He then became a post-doctoral fellow at the University of Amsterdam. A year later he became an assistant professor at the University of Toronto in the former Department of Botany, and since 2004 he is professor in the and at Cornell University. He publishes with a fictitious middle initial and is sometime confused with Canadian Evolutionary Biologist, .

Research

His work is focused on the ecology and evolution of plant-insect interactions, including aspects of herbivory, community ecology, phenotypic plasticity, chemical ecology, coevolution, and phylogenetics. His current research includes work on NY State biodiversity, the ecology of invasive plants, the biology of monarch butterflies, and the evolution of plant defense strategies. In addition to many scientific papers, his recent book has received acclaim from a wide audience , including the .

Awards

1999 Young Investigator Award, American Society of Naturalists
2004 Early Career Award, National Science Foundation
2006 George Mercer Award, Ecological Society of America
2009 David Starr Jordan Prize
2012 Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science
2013 , Entomological Society of America
2016 Robert H. MacArthur Award, Ecological Society of America
2017 Fellow of the Ecological Society of America
2018 Silverstein-Simeone Lecture Award,
Edward O. Wilson Naturalist Award 2019