Brian Bowen is a Research Professor at the Hawaii institute of Marine Biology, part of the University of Hawaii. Bowen runs a genetics lab with Dr. Robert Toonen, with the goal of identifying how marine biodiversity is generated and maintained, in the service of conservation goals. He earned an M.A. in Marine Science under Jack Musick at the Virginia Institute of Marine Science (1987), completed a Ph.D. in genetics under John C. Avise at University of Georgia (1992), and subsequently worked as a Post-doctoral Researcher and Assistant Professor at the University of Florida. In March, 2003, Bowen joined the Hawaii Institute of Marine Biology at the University of Hawaii. During this interval, he has conducted genetic surveys of reef fishes, sharks, bonefishes, anchovies, sardines, shrimp, marine turtles, sea birds, manatees, dolphins, rattlesnakes, lizards, freshwater turtles, limpets, sturgeon, and marine bacteria, for a total of over 200 publications. These reports include contributions in the journals Science, Nature, Proceedings of the National Academy of Science USA, Proceedings of the Royal Society of London, and many more. Bowen is co-author of the best selling textbook, Diversity of Fishes. He is a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, and has served on editorial boards for the Journal of Heredity, Evolution, Genetica, Molecular Ecology, and Herpetological Review.