The 15-year-old's passion for New Zealand insects and his service to several Dunedin volunteer environmental groups has won him the 2008 Sir Peter Blake Trust national environmental leader award.
"I find bugs fascinating. They're all so different and they excel in different ways - how they survive and their adaptations.
"When you look at them up close, you can see how special and unique they are."
Morgan said he spent two weeks working on his application and was delighted to learn he had won the national award, after returning from a trip to Stewart Island at the weekend.
"It's pretty awesome."
As part of the application, he wrote three short essays on what he believed was New Zealand's biggest environmental problem, the environmental projects he has undertaken in Dunedin and the skills that make him an environmental leader.
He has also written two articles on New Zealand insects for The Weta (a scholarly journal for entomologists), is a member of the John McGlashan College Carbon Warriors (a group promoting environmental awareness), volunteers at the Otago Museum Tropical Forest educating the public, and has been a leading member of scouts for 10 years.
Morgan believed he won the award because he showed passion for the environment and had the ability to inspire others not to stomp on, or spray bugs.
"I tell people, without them, you wouldn't have any food. They pollinate all the plants and spread all the seeds.
"They are the basis of life. We need them to move forward and survive."
Spiders, wasps, mosquitoes, weta, moths and stick insects - you name it, he has it pinned to boards in his room.
He collects them whenever and wherever he goes out.
"I like to look at the small things in life. When I'm walking around, I'm looking for bugs.
"Sometimes, my friends think I'm not focused on them because I'm too busy looking at a Geodorcus helmsi [Helm's stag beetle] sitting on a wall."
He often pockets the bugs and, once home, he humanely gases them with nail polish remover before preserving them with camphor and pinning them on a display board next to the hundreds of others in hisextensive insect collection.
His studies on New Zealand insects have been well received by entomologists, and next year he plans to start studying biology in the hope of becoming an entomologist.
