Hong Qian
Hong is the Curator of Botany at the Illinois State Museum’s Research and Collection Center. Prior to his current position he was an Adjunct Research Associate at the Illinois Natural History Survey. His research is multidisciplinary and particularly lies at the interface of botany, ecology and biogeography. It involves a wide range of spatial scales (from local to global) and a variety of taxa (e.g. bryophytes, vascular plants, mammals, birds, amphibians, reptiles, and fishes). His research accomplishments are mainly in areas of macroecology, biogeography, plant community ecology, phylogenetic community ecology, invasion ecology, and plant systematics. Most of his research accomplishments are reflected in more than 130 articles published in a variety of peer-reviewed journals, including world-top multidisciplinary scientific journals (e.g. Nature, Science and PNAS) or world-top journals in the fields of ecology and biogeography such as Nature Ecology & Evolution, American Naturalist, Ecology, Ecology Letters, Trends in Ecology & Evolution, Global Ecology and Biogeography, Journal of Biogeography, Ecography, and Journal of Ecology. He was the first author on more than 100 published journal articles. Details about him and his publications are available at:
https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Hong_Qian3/publications/
https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=w_YbY-AAAAAJ&hl=en
Brian Metzke
Brian is the State Aquatic Ecologist and Aquatic Ecology Program Manager for the Illinois Department of Natural Resources. His professional focus is the conservation of fishes and freshwater mussels, especially species of conservation concern. His research interests include community ecology of stream fishes and of freshwater mussels. He is the lead author of An Atlas of Illinois Fishes. Brian was a stream ecologist with the Illinois Natural History Survey between 2007 and 2018. Completed studies include a characterization of coolwater streams, status assessments of Illinois fishes, and an evaluation of conservation easements as a practice for enhancing streams. Select study reports and manuscripts can be found on his ResearchGate page.