Naomi Pierce

Naomi E. Pierce (born 1954) is the Hessel Professor of Biology ^[1] at Harvard University and a world authority on butterflies.^[2] Pierce is the university's Curator of Lepidoptery, a position once held by Vladimir Nabokov.^[3]

Pierce studies the relationship between butterfly larvae and ants, as well as the genetic trends within the species, in order to understand the process of evolution.^[4]

Pierce and collaborators Corrie Moreau and Charles D. Bell were the first to establish the origin of ants at 140 to 168 million years ago using molecular sequence data, 40 million years older than previous estimates.^[5]

Career

Pierce earned her BS in Biology at Yale (1972–76) and her Ph.D. in Biology at Harvard (1977–83)

From 1984-86 she was Research Lecturer at Christ Church College, Oxford and a NATO Research Fellow at Oxford's Department of Zoology

In 1986 she moved to Princeton as Assistant (86-89) and Associate (89-90) Professor of Biology, and in 1991 was appointed Hessel Professor and Curator of Lepidoptera^[6]

External links

Pierce Laboratory at Harvard University

References

^ NY Times: Charles Lee Remington, Butterfly Expert, Dies at 85
^ Harvard Magazine: A life with lycaenids
^ NY Times: Seduced by the song of science
^ Pierce Laboratory and the history of the two species.
^ Science Daily: Ancient Ants Arose 140-168 Million Years Ago; Insects Needed Flowering Plants To Flourish
^ bio-details at Harvard

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Name	Pierce, Naomi
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Date of birth	1954
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