Frank M. Carpenter

Frank Morton Carpenter (September 6, 1902 – January 18, 1994) was an American entomologist and paleontologist. He studied insects that lived long ago, helping scientists understand how they lived and changed over time. Carpenter earned his PhD from Harvard University and worked for sixty years at the Harvard Museum of Comparative Zoology, where he studied fossil insects.

He did important work on Permian fossil insects found in Elmo, Kansas, comparing them with similar fossils found around the world. Using careful observations of insect wings and mouthparts, he helped organize the many different kinds of ancient insects into just nine main groups. His big book, the Treatise volume on Insects, became a key reference for other scientists.

Other scientists, like David Grimaldi and Michael S. Engel, called him "the most influential paleoentomologist of his generation." Many insects have been named after him, such as the hanging fly Bittacus carpenteri and the fossil parasitic wasp Carpenteriana tumida. In 1938, he was elected a fellow of the Entomological Society of America, showing how much his work meant to the study of insects. He also taught students at the Harvard Extension School.