Benjamin Wilder

Born and raised in the Sonoran Desert, Ben is an avid explorer of his desert home. Ben is a biogeographer, botanist, and desert ecologist whose research looks at the origin and future of the Sonoran Desert. He received his Ph.D. in Botany from the University of California, Riverside for his doctoral research into the historical biogeography of islands of the Gulf of California. He served as the Director of the Desert Laboratory on Tumamoc Hill from 2016-2022. He is co-founder and Director of the Next Generation Sonoran Desert Researchers (N-Gen). His scientific and conservation efforts strive to combine multiple disciplines and perspectives to better understand and care for the desert that drives his passion.

He lives with his wife Dr. Erin Riordan and their son Eli in the Tucson Mountains.

You can contact Ben via email at wilder.benjamin@gmail.com.

See my Google Scholar page here