Erica McAlister


Erica McAlister is a British scientist and museum curator. She is an expert in insects and is senior curator of Diptera, in the Department of Entomology, at the Natural History Museum, London.

Education

McAlister was educated at the University of Manchester and at the University of Surrey, Roehampton where she was awarded a PhD in 2002 for research at The Wetland Centre, London.

Career and research

She has appeared on various BBC Radio 4 programmes including the natural history programme The Living World, Who's the Pest? and the comedy show The Museum of Curiosity where her contributions have been notable both for her enthusiasm for her subject and for her sense of humour. She appeared on the BBC Radio 4 series Natural History Heroes in 2015 talking about entomologist George Verrall, and on the Science Friday radio show in December 2017. She has also appeared on the TV programmes University Challenge and the Museum of Life.
Erica serves as president of the Amateur Entomologists' Society, which she uses as a platform for science outreach and research communication. In addition to radio and television appearances, she frequently presents talks at The Natural History Museum, Café Scientifique, and Pub Science. Erica has also been involved with outreach event Hullabaloo on the Isle of Wight, with the National Poo Museum. In April 2019, McAlister was a guest on Radio 4's The Life Scientific.
The first edition of her book The Secret Life of Flies was published in 2017.