Rate My Professor Alistair Drake

Drake's research centers on radar entomology, utilizing special-purpose radars to observe insect migration in progress. He has designed and built a series of entomological radar units, one of which operates at Hay, NSW, and developed software for analyzing radar signals while studying the radar-reflecting properties of insects. His biological investigations emphasize the relationship between insect migration and weather or lower atmospheric structure, orientation behavior during migratory flights at heights of several hundred meters, migrations of insect pests including radar applications for monitoring and forecasting, and migration as an example of integrative biology spanning genes to evolution. These pursuits align with aeroecology, incorporating birds and bats alongside insects, and extend to applied ecology including wildlife management for conservation and insect pest forecasting. Notable publications include the co-authored book Radar Entomology: Observing Insect Flight and Migration (CABI, 2012, with D.R. Reynolds) and Insect Migration: Tracking Resources Through Space and Time (Cambridge University Press, 2000, edited with A.G. Gatehouse). His oeuvre comprises 2 books, 31 book chapters such as The Australian plague locust—risk and response (2023), 48 journal articles, 22 conference papers, 9 conference abstracts, and 1 thesis/dissertation, advancing methodologies and understanding in aerial insect ecology.