Brandon Claridge (site author)
I am a PhD entomologist, ichneumonid taxonomist, and cofounder of Claridge Traps, a company that designs and sells insect traps. By day, I am a scientific consultant with the Center for High Performance Computing at the University of Utah. My dissertation research at Utah State University used ultraconserved element (UCE) phylogenomics to clarify species boundaries, understand morphological evolution, and improve the classification of ichneumonid wasps to better reflect their evolutionary history.
I'm broadly interested in novel approaches to taxonomy, including computer vision and web development. A key goal of my work is to make ichneumonid identification more accessible —both to non-specialists and citizen scientists—by developing tools that broaden access to taxonomic knowledge.
My long term taxonomic interests are in revising the Ichneumoninae of western North America, where about 25% of the species have been described, and the Neotropics (Central and South America), where at most 10% of the species have been described.
Publications
