Phil Nixon has degrees in Biology and Zoology with minors in Botany from Lincoln Land Community College and Southern Illinois University, concentrating in Entomology and Invertebrate Zoology. He has a Ph.D. in Entomology from Kansas State University with a secondary concentration in Horticulture. He has been a University of Illinois Extension Entomologist since 1980 with responsibilities in pesticide applicator training and the Integrated Pest Management of insect pests of landscapes and households.
Phil has been involved in natural history since Junior High when he collected a jar of pond water and debris, and spent the next couple of weeks identifying and studying its organisms. At about the same age he started his first aquarium with native fish that he collected from a local creek. He is a member and past board member of the North American Native Fishes Association (NANFA), and President of the Champaign Area Fish Exchange. He maintains approximately 40 aquariums with about two-thirds containing North American native fish. Most of the native fish or their ancestors were collected by him at NANFA meetings in various parts of the country. He is familiar with many of the 17,000 species of Illinois insects and has an insect photo library containing about 8,000 images. Several hundred of his photographic images have been published in books.