Richard C. Brusca

Richard Charles Brusca (born 25 January 1945; Los Angeles, California) is an American biologist, essayist/editorialist, and novelist. His science specialty is invertebrate zoology, marine and terrestrial ecology and conservation, animal and biocultural diversity, and coastal archaeology. His biodiversity research in the Gulf of California, beginning in the 1970s, is considered foundational for the region[1]. His systematics research includes numerous taxonomic papers, monographs, phylogenetic and biogeographic analyses, and descriptions of about 50 new species of crustaceans and insects[2]. His 2015 paper on classification of life is a benchmark work, with over 700 professional citations[3]. His research revised older paradigms on the Gulf of California, showing the ecological insignificance of the Colorado River on the Northern Gulf[4] and codified the idea that the Sonoran Desert should be considered a “maritime desert.”[5] Brusca is an occasional essayist in several U.S. and Mexico newspapers, often coauthoring with Omar Vidal (Former Director General, World Wildlife Fund-Mexico and Senior Officer, UN Environment Programme).[6] His fiction writing genres are literary fiction, historical fiction, speculative fiction, and magical realism[7]. He has published more than 200 research papers, essays, and books[2]. His text on invertebrates (in four languages) is the largest-selling text in its field, with over 5000 citations in the professional literature[8]. He is an elected Fellow in the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS)[9], the Linnean Society of London, and the California Academy of Sciences[10]. Among his other honors/awards are: National Geographic Explorer[11], Research Excellence Award from University of Southern California, Science Achievement Award for a Professional Paper (PLoS ONE), and a U.S. Department of Defense Civilian Service Medal. 
==Education==
Bachelor’s Degree from California State Polytechnic University, San Luis Obispo/Pomona (1967); Master’s Degree from Los Angeles State University (1970); PhD from the University of Arizona (1975). 
==Career Positions==
Assistant/Associate Professor (tenured), University of Southern California (1975-1986); Curator of Crustacea and Head, Invertebrate Zoology Section, Los Angeles County Museum of Natural History (1984-1987); Joshua L. Baily Chair, Curator of Invertebrates, and Director of Research & Collections, San Diego Natural History Museum (1987-1993); Professor of Biology and Director, Graduate Program in Marine Biology (and Associate Director, Grice Marine Biological Laboratory), College of Charleston, South Carolina (1993-1998); Senior Research Scientist, Columbia University, New York (1999-2001); Executive Director, Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum, Tucson, Arizona (2001-2010); Research Scientist, Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of Arizona, Tucson, Arizona (1998-present). 
Category:1945 births
Category:People from Los Angeles, California
Category:California State Polytechnic University, Pomona alumni
Category:California State University, Los Angeles alumni
Category:University of Arizona alumni
Category:American biologists
Category:Novelists