Rob Dunn, PhD

Robert Dunn is a biologist, writer and professor in the Department of Applied Ecology at North Carolina State University. He has written several books and his science essays have appeared at magazines such as BBC Wildlife Magazine, Scientific American, Smithsonian Magazine, National Geographic and others. He has become known for efforts to involve the public as citizen scientists in arthropod surveys and bacterial flora studies. His projects include studies of belly button biodiversity, mites that live on human faces, ants in backyards, and fungi and bacteria in houses.

Dunn obtained a PhD in Ecology and Evolution from the University of Connecticut in 2003. Upon finishing his PhD, he became a Fulbright fellow at Curtin University in Australia where he worked with Jonathan Majer and Byron Lamont to study the dispersal of seeds.