Executive team
Andrew Fairbairn
Managing director and founder
After almost five years in the military, Andrew left to pursue his passion for nature. To fulfill this, he completed an undergraduate degree in Environmental Science at the American Military University (AMU), where his passion for conservation was born. To further his knowledge, he then completed a Masters in Biodiversity and Conservation at the University of Exeter. In 2018, Andrew moved back to Germany and, as conservation technology is a major interest of his, he completed a second Bachelor’s degree in Information Technology at AMU with a focus on enterprise software development. In 2021, Andrew joined the Chair of Terrestrial Ecology at the Technical University of Munich, where he will complete a PhD in Urban Ecology in 2025. Andrew has a passion for conservation and has worked in the Caribbean teaching ornithology and conducting bird surveys. He currently volunteers with the Bavarian League for the Protection of Birds and Nature (LBV), monitoring birds and assisting with practical conservation projects.
Annika Neuhaus-Harr
Deputy Managing director and founder
As a child, Annika used to tell everyone that one day she would move to the jungle and research understudied species. As she grew up, this dream seemed more and more unrealistic: which jungle exactly? How would she make a living? How would she gain the knowledge she needed? She thought a first step would be to study biology, which she did at the Friedrich-Alexander University (FAU) in Erlangen. She then went on to do a Masters in Ecology, Evolution and Systematics at the Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität (LMU) in Munich. During her studies, she worked with the zoos of Nuremberg and Munich, monitoring lowland gorillas and blue cranes and gaining insight into ex-situ conservation. For her master’s thesis, she studied the effects of human disturbance on blue and great tits. Since the end of 2021, Annika has been a PhD student at the Department of Terrestrial Ecology and is currently working on plant-insect interactions. Today she is not afraid to dream big and wants to make a difference.
Advisory board
Tom is a conservation scientist and zoologist with a wide range of research interests, over 60 peer-reviewed publications and over 20 years’ experience with biodiversity surveys. He has diverse research interests including tropical ecology, biogeography, ecological method design and ex-situ conservation, and has recently become increasingly interested in exploring the drivers and consequences of extinction. This interest has led to the development of several projects investigating the phenomenon of ‘lost’ species, which in turn have led to collaborations with members of RARElab. Tom is the research director of Operation Wallacea – a scientific expedition company based in the UK.
Dr Tom Martin
Erica is the Principal Curator for Diptera and Siphonaptera at the Natural History Museum, London. Her research focuses on Diptera, particularly Culicidae, Asilidae, and Mycetophilidae, with projects ranging from historic DNA recovery to population studies using museum specimens. Since 2015, she has collaborated with Operation Wallacea, teaching entomology and studying invertebrate fauna, especially Diptera, in diverse locations including Dominica, Romania, Honduras, Peru, and Knepp Wilding in Sussex. Active in science communication, she has given keynote lectures at major entomological conferences and presented radio series on insects for BBC Radio 4. Erica has also provided evidence to a House of Commons Select Committee on insect decline. She is the author of several books, including “The Secret Life of Flies,” “The Inside Out of Flies,” and the children’s book “A Bug’s World,” which was shortlisted for the Royal Society Children’s Book 2023.
Dr Erica McAlister
Country & Region Advisors
Rafa is a biologist and researcher working at the intersection of entomology, ecology and biodiversity conservation. With a Ph.D. in entomology from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (UIUC) and academic training in Colombia, the US, and Germany, he has developed expertise in insect community dynamics, particularly ants, in response to environmental change. His research interests include the impacts of global change on insect biodiversity, habitat fragmentation, invasive species and ecosystem services provided by arthropod communities. He has conducted research at institutions such as the Technical University of Munich, the UIUC, the Alexander von Humboldt Institute and the Universidad del Valle. His work has been published in prestigious journals as both lead and co-author, contributing to the understanding of how land-use change and habitat fragmentation affect insect diversity and population dynamics in temperate and tropical ecosystems.
Dr Rafael Achury
Colombia & South America