Ehrlich, Paul Ralph (1932– )

US entomologist and ecologist. He made contributions to field research on Arctic insects and parasitic mites and became a crusader for human conservation of natural resources. His book, The Population Bomb (1968), predicted worldwide famine and advocated zero population growth.

Born in Philadelphia, he became an entomologist at the University of Kansas and was concurrently a research associate at the Chicago Academy of Science. After moving to Stanford, he performed extensive studies of butterflies. A trip to India in 1966 made him aware of the ecological effects of poverty and overpopulation. He became Bing Professor of Population Studies at Stanford, and, in 1990, won Sweden's Crafoord Prize. He became a MacArthur Fellow for his work in population biology and conservation of biological diversity.