UNIVERSITY COLLEGE LONDONBen Collen, a University College London PI whose research spanned ecosystems from Antarctica to Brazil, died on Saturday (May 19), according to the university. He was 40 years old. His wife writes on a fundraising page for bone cancer research that he had been fighting the disease for 16 months.
Many of Collen’s colleagues have paid tribute to him on Twitter. Dani Rabaiotti, an author and graduate student at the Zoological Society of London, calls Collen “a brilliant scientist and all round lovely person,” adding, “He was a great mentor to many + his advice helped shape the path I am on now.”
Collen’s lab focused on changes in biodiversity, how species respond to environmental threats, ways to reduce uncertainty in macroecology and biodiversity, and models of the projected ecological effects of different policies.
While an undergraduate at Imperial College London, Collen did a stint as a research assistant on a carnivore research project in Kenya. He went on to earn a master’s degree at the University of York and then a PhD from the ...
