As Professor and Canada Research Chair at Guelph, he has trained more than 100 graduate students and postdoctoral fellows. His nearly 600 publications have generated 121,000 citations and an h-index of 143. He is an Officer in the Order of Canada, and has four honorary degrees. He received the 2018 Heineken Prize for the Environment, the 2020 MIDORI Prize for Biodiversity, the 2024 Benjamin Franklin Medal in Earth & Environmental Science, and the 2025 Nobel Sustainability Trust Award for Outstanding Research and Development in the Field of Biodiversity.

Dr. Muhammad Ashfaq is a Research Scientist at the Centre for Biodiversity Genomics and an Adjunct Professor at the University of Guelph, Canada. A leading expert in DNA barcoding and metabarcoding, his research focuses on applying these tools for agricultural pest identification, biodiversity assessment, and biosecurity. With an extensive publication record, he has led projects constructing DNA barcode libraries for insects and pioneered the use of metabarcoding in agroecosystems.