Calvin Leung

I’m a PhD candidate at NTU ASE. I’m born to like insects, particularly for beetles. I started learning about beetles by keeping exotic rhinoceros beetles and stag beetles as pets, but as I witnessed how unsustainable the beetle pet industry is, I stopped keeping them but preferred spending more time in observing and studying them in the wild. I later realised how little we knew about the ecology of these charismatic creatures despite their popularity. I therefore hope to reveal the importance of saproxylic beetles, so that people would acknowledge these beetles as crucial members in the ecosystem rather than luxurious display or pets. In my PhD, I would quantify the nutrient cycling associated with saproxylic insects and their novel roles as bioengineers. My research will not only confined to tropical forests in Singapore, but also in peat swamp forests in Brunei.

During my leisure time, I love to go on wildlife watching, learning more about how different taxa interact within the ecosystem (and yes, my work is my hobby). Apart from insects, I’m also a big fan of oaks (Family Fagaceae). For non-ecology hobbies, I like playing squash.