Brett C. Ratcliffe, professor of entomology and former curator in the University of Nebraska State Museum, is retiring Sept. 30 after serving 55 years at the University of Nebraska–Lincoln.
His love of the outdoors and collecting insects as a hobby led to a career in entomology studying the biodiversity of beetles, especially scarab beetles of the New World tropics. He conducted field and museum research for half a century in nearly every country of Central and South America, much of the West Indies, many countries in western Europe, Japan and South Africa. In the 1970s he took a two-year leave of absence from NU to move to the Amazon Basin with his wife, two small children and dachshund to work for Brazil’s National Institute for Amazonian Research (INPA).
He published prolifically about his biodiversity research on beetles in 250 scientific journal articles and 13 books. He described 240 species of scarabs new to science and had 25 new species of insects named in his honor by colleagues from around the world. His research was supported by several million dollars in external grants from the National Science Foundation, National Geographic Society, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and Nebraska Game and Parks, among others.
His many recognitions and honors included the Outstanding Research and Creativity Award from the University of Nebraska; president and later honorary member of the Coleopterists Society; Westwood Medal from the Royal Entomological Society in the United Kingdom for excellence in insect taxonomy; Faculty International Scholar of the Year awarded by Phi Beta Delta at the University of Nebraska; Charles E. Bessey Award from the Center for Great Plains Studies at the University of Nebraska; a top 10 new species discovery in 2007 (the only insect so designated) awarded by the Institute for Species Exploration, Arizona State University; a one month scientific exchange with the German Democratic Republic as part of the National Academy of Science’s East European-USSR Scientific Exchange Program; and several outstanding paper-of-the-year awards from several scientific journals.
He taught field entomology for five consecutive summers at Cedar Point, the Biological Field Station in Ogallala, Nebraka, as well as Insect Biodiversity on the Lincoln campus. He mentored nine master’s students, seven doctoral students, and three post-doctoral students. He served as an international examiner for doctoral students in Spain, Norway, South Africa, Brazil and Canada. He presented scientific papers in Venezuela, Brazil, Mexico, Guatemala, Costa Rica, England, Germany and at professional society meetings in the United States and Canada. He conducted scarab beetle workshops and seminars in Peru, Jamaica and the United States.
