Christopher K. Starr

Christopher K. Starr was born in Canada in 1949, but has spent the bulk of his adult life in the tropics of Asia and the New World. He was introduced to insects one day in 1954 by his grandmother, who happened to ask "Christopher, would thee like to go bug collecting?" What they found that day so amazed him that it grew into a lifetime in entomology. As an undergraduate in 1972, he reached the conviction that social insects (ants, termites and some wasps and bees) are the most interesting feature of the known universe, a view from which he has not wavered. He came to UWI from Taiwan in 1991, retiring as Professor of Entomology in 2014. He continues to research the lives of social insects and, having eaten the cascadu, expects to reside in Trinidad to the end of his days. An extensive set of autobiographical anecdotes can be found at http://www.ckstarr.net/cks/Magpie.pdf