Phylogenetic Diversity (PDF)

Dr. Faith did his first degree in Mathematics, at the University of Chicago. He adopted a biology "sub-major", pursuing courses on genetics and population biology. That prompted further study at Stony Brook, Ecology and Evolution, for his PhD work, on speciation and geographic variation in aphids. Dr. Faith's research over the past 30 years or so could be described as mathematical biodiversity science. His research at the Australian Museum integrates biodiversity and systematics, including "biodiversity informatics". It is concerned with theory and applications of quantitative biodiversity assessment, extending from the scale of genes to whole countries, with special emphasis on the best-possible use of Museum collections in regional biodiversity assessment, and to the links from biodiversity assessment to ecosystem services, sustainability, and economics. Dr. Faith's work on "phylogenetic diversity" and conservation is considered semial in the field, his original 1992 work accumulated more than 1000 citations, making it the most-cited paper ever in Biological Conservation from more than 7000 papers spanning 40 years. Other work in phylogenetics involves development and application of phylogenetic methods, and philosophy of science. He also does editorial work for Systematic Biology. Dr. Faith is an Adjunct associate professor at Sydney University and at the University of New England.

Dr. Scherson is an Associate Professor at the University of Chile, at the Faculty of Forest Sciences and Nature Conservation. Her research has focused on phylogenetic systematics of Chilean flora, with a special focus on endemic taxa. In the last 5-6 years she has developed an interest in studying phylogeny-based measures for conservation and their application as tools for evaluating taxa and ecosystems for conservation purposes. She has studied patterns of phylogenetic diversity and endemism in Chilean endemic and native flora,and has published the first evaluations of these