Warren Brigham, aquatic coleopterist and Professional Scientist for the Illinois Natural History Survey in Champaign, passed away on 7 August 1996; he was 54.
Warren's interest in aquatic biology was sparked at an early age; by 7th grade his insect collection already was extensive. By the time he graduated from high school, he already had conducted surveys for fishes using rotenone and block netting, measured water quality parameters, and documented the morphometry of a lake in Wisconsin where his family had a summer cottage. Warren joined the Survey in 1961 as a Project Assistant. He earned his B.S. degree in Zoology from the University of Illinois in 1964. After a two-year period at Tennessee Technical University, where he earned an M.S. degree in Zoology and Botany, he returned to Champaign to enroll in a doctoral program at the University of Illinois and continue employment as a research assistant in the Section of Aquatic Biology at the Survey. From 1969 through 1972, Warren was the resident biologist at the Survey's Sullivan Field Lab at Lake Shelbyville. Upon completion of his Ph.D. in Zoology and Civil Engineering from the University of Illinois in 1972, he returned to the Survey offices in Urbana, continuing his career as an aquatic biologist. Warren was promoted to Assistant Professional Scientist in 1972, to Associate Professional Scientist in 1976, and to Professional Scientist in 1983; he served as Director of the Center for Biogeographic Information from 1989 through 1992, as Manager of the Illinois Geographic Information System from 1982 through 1992, and most recently as a Professional Scientist in the Office of the Chief of the Survey.
Warren was largely responsible for introducing Geographic Information Systems (GIS) technology to the former Illinois Department of Energy & Natural Resources and to the State of Illinois. He became interested in GIS in the formative stages of the technology and this led to the establishment of the Illinois Geographic Information System (IGIS). Warren maintained close ties with the developer of ARC/INFO - Environmental Systems Research Institute (ESRI) of Redlands, California - and his enthusiasm for GIS made him one of the premier advocates for GIS across the country and around the world. Under Warren's guidance, the IGIS became a critical resource for researchers working to inventory and analyze the State's natural resources.
Warren's professional accomplishments included authorship or co-authorship of 21 peer-reviewed publications on fishes, aquatic insects, and GIS technology; editor and principal author on the distribution, life histories, and environmental requirements of the aquatic insects of North and South Carolina; co-authorship of the aquatic Coleoptera chapter in the 2nd and 3rd editions of a principal textbook on aquatic entomology for North America; principal or co-investigator on numerous grants and contracts; consultant and principal investigator on GIS, remote sensing, and database management for the U.S. Agency for International Development (AID), which he assisted in establishing GIS and training of staff in Kenya, and in the design of spatial data components for the National Biodiversity Support Program in Indonesia; technical expert on GIS and data management for the National Biodiversity Information Center, Smithsonian Institution and National Biological Survey; and membership on the Computerization and Networking Committee for the Association of Systematics Collections. In addition, Warren served as a reviewer of proposals, consultant on GIS and database management, and Biological Facilities Panelist for the National Science Foundation.
Warren's memberships in professional organizations included the American Fisheries Society, American Society of Ichthyologists and Herpetologists, American Society of Limnology and Oceanography, Coleopterists Society, Ecological Society of America, Entomological Society of Washington, Kansas (Central States) Entomological Society, North American Benthological Society (NABS), and Societas Internationalis Limnologiae. His involvement in NABS was extensive; he had been a member of the NABS Literature Review Committee since 1971, and had served as Program Chair, member of the Executive Committee, and member of the Committee on Common and Scientific Names of Aquatic Invertebrates.
Throughout his career, Warren's systematic interest and love for aquatic biology focused on aquatic beetles, especially the Haliplidae, or crawling water beetles; he was perhaps the world's foremost expert with that family. Other systematic interests included Megaloptera, Odonata, and scarab beetles. Tantamount to these systematic interests was the daily review of past and present literature discussing every aspect of the Coleoptera. His compilation of the aquatic Coleoptera section of the NABS bibliography for over 25 years - and his desire to share that information with others, most recently on the World Wide Web - is perhaps his single most important contribution to the scientific community.
Warren was unselfish in his leadership, and with his guidance, advice, knowledge, and insight. His friendship was always warm and sincere, and it endured through times of personal and professional differences. His legacy - one that he practiced more than he verbalized - is for us to freely share knowledge and information so that others might improve in their expertise, be enlightened to new opportunities, and contribute to basic science worldwide.
Warren is survived by his wife Aleta, daughters Sarah Holt and Cynthia Brigham, a brother, Warner Brigham, and his parents, Rosemary and Charles Brigham.
An endowment fund has been established in Warren's memory to support network integration
of research on aquatic Coleoptera. For more information on this endowment fund,
please contact Suzanne J. Voegtlin, Illinois Natural History Survey,
172 Natural Resources Building (MC-652), 607 E. Peabody Drive, Champaign IL 61820-6970;
(217) 244-2110;
e-mail: suev@mail.inhs.uiuc.edu
A bibliography of professional publications authored or co-authored by Dr. Warren U. Brigham is presented below (but remains incomplete at this time).
Brigham, A. R., W. U. Brigham, and A. Gnilka, eds.
1982. Aquatic insects and oligochaetes of North and South Carolina. Midwest Aquatic Enterprises, Mahomet, Illinois [837 pp].
Brigham, W. U.
1977. Nearctic Haliplidae, IV. New Haliplus from Canada (Coleoptera: Haliplidae). Proceedings of the Entomological Society of Washington 79(2): 254-258.
1980. Coleoptera (other than Dryopoidea). Pp. 96-99, In Aquatic insects of Upper Three Runs Creek, Savannah River Plant, South Carolina, Part I. Orders other than Diptera. J. C. Morse, J. W. Chapin, D. D. Herlong, and R. S. Harvey, eds. J. Georgia Entomol. Soc. 15(1): 73-101.
1981. Ectopria leechi, a new false water penny from the United States (Coleoptera: Eubriidae). Pan-Pacific Entomologist 57(1): 313-320.
1982. Aquatic Coleoptera. Pp. 10.1 - 10.136, In Aquatic insects and oligochaetes of North and South Carolina. A. R. Brigham, W. U. Brigham, and A. Gnilka, eds. Midwest Aquatic Enterprises, Mahomet, Illinois.
1982. Phylogenetic relationships among nearctic Peltodytes (Coleoptera: Haliplidae). Presented at 1st International Conference on Classification, Phylogeny, and Natural History of Hydradephaga, 1-2 December 1982, Toronto, Ontario, Canada.
1983. Nearctic Haliplidae (Coleoptera) VI. Haliplus nitens LeConte: Designation of a lectotype, redescription, and distribution. Coleopterist's Bulletin 37(4): 353-361.
Brigham, W. U., and D. D. Herlong.
1982. Aquatic and semiaquatic Lepidoptera. Pp. 12.1-10 - 12.36, In Aquatic insects and oligochaetes of North and South Carolina. A. R. Brigham, W. U. Brigham, and A. Gnilka, eds. Midwest Aquatic Enterprises, Mahomet, Illinois.
Brigham, W. U., and M. W. Sanderson.
1972. A new species of Haliplus from Illinois and South Dakota (Coleoptera: Haliplidae). Transactions of the Illinois State Academy of Science 65: 17-22.
1973. Haliplus variomaculatus, a new species from east-central Illinois (Coleoptera: Haliplidae). Coleopterist's Bulletin 27: 157-163.
1974. Crawling water beetles. Illinois Natural History Survey Reports 133: 3.
Hilsenhoff, W. L., and W. U. Brigham.
1978. Crawling water beetles of Wisconsin (Coleoptera: Haliplidae). Great Lakes Entomologist 11(1): 11-22.
White, D. S., and W. U. Brigham.
1996. Aquatic Coleoptera. Pp. 399-473, In An introduction to the aquatic insects of North America, 3rd ed. R. W. Merritt and K. W. Cummins, eds. Kendall/Hunt Publishing Company, 4050 Westmark Drive, Dubuque, Iowa 52002.
White, D. S., W. U. Brigham, and J. T. Doyen.
1984. Aquatic Coleoptera. Pp. 361-437, In An introduction to the aquatic insects of North America, 2nd ed. R. W. Merritt and K. W. Cummins, eds. Kendall Hunt, Dubuque, Iowa.
Compiled by Mark J. Wetzel
mjwetzel@.uiuc.edu