To get in touch with an Academy expert, please contact Stephanie Stone, Andrew Ng or Helen Taylor (listed above).
| CONTACT | TITLE | DEPARTMENT | AREAS OF EXPERTISE | CURRENT RESEARCH |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Frank Almeda | Senior Curator, Decker and Martha McAllister Chair of Botany | Botany | Flowering plants, especially tropical species. Rainforest ecology and destruction, especially in Costa Rica, Panama and Brazil. Native plants of Marin County. Invasive species in general, including Miconia calvescens, Clidemia hirta (Kosters Curse), and Miconia racemosa. | Princess Flowers (Melastomataceae), a worldwide family of tropical plants including Eucalyptus, Bottlebrush, Crate myrtles and Guavas. Revised Flora of Marin County. Chromosome cytology and evolution. |
| Paul Arnaud, Jr. | Curator Emeritus | Entomology | Diptera (flies), particularly the families Empididae, Tachinidae and Thaumaleidae. | Classification and zoogeography of Thaumaleidae (Diptera), Nearctic Chersodromia and Hilara (Empididae). |
| Raymond Bandar | Field Associate | Ornithology & Mammalogy | Skull preparation, marine mammals. | Skulls exhibit |
| Roberta Brett | Senior Curatorial Assistant | Entomology | Phylogeny, biogeography and natural history of the Omophron (Coleoptera: Carabidae), or carabid beetles. | Madagascar Omophron. |
| Bruce Bartholomew | Senior Collections Manager | Botany | Flora of China and Modoc County, California | China Natural History Project, Flora of China. |
| Meg Burke | Director of Education | Education | Galapagos Islands, Behavioral ecology. | Costa Rica biodiversity |
| David Catania | Senior Collections Manager | Ichthyology | X-Ray Ichthyology exhibit. | China Natural History Project |
| Tom Daniel | Curator | Botany | New World Acanthaceae (shrimp plants and their relatives), especially in Mexico. Native and invasive plants in San Francisco. Pollination biology. Desert plant communities. | A new flora of San Francisco, and floristic catalogs of mountain ranges in Arizona and the Mexican state of Sinaloa. |
| Jean DeMouthe | Collections Manager | Invertebrate Zoology & Geology | Paleontology and mineralogy. Geology engineering. San Mateo County geology. Earthquakes and the Earthquake exhibit. | Nevada mineral expedition. |
| Robert Drewes | Curator and Department Chairman | Herpetology | Evolutionary relationships, natural history and biogeography of African amphibians and reptiles, the comparative physiology of arid-adapted amphibians. Hyperoliidae, the dominant treefrog of Africa, the Seychelles and Madagascar. | Studying the mechanism responsible for theimpermeable skin in arid-adapted reptiles. |
| Jack Dumbacher | Assistant Curator and Chair | Ornithology & Mammalogy | Ecology and evolution of chemical defense in birds, particularly with pitohuis in New Guinea. Muellerian mimicry in birds. | Biogeography study of birds in New Guinea. Investigation of toxicity source for poisonous birds. |
| Bill Eschmeyer | Senior Curator and Department Chair | Ichthyology | Scorpaenidae (tropical stonefishes, turkeyfishes and their allies). | Catalog of Fishes database |
| Carl Ferraris | Adjunct Curator | Ichthyology | Catfish, especially whale catfishes and catfish from Myanmar and Southwestern China. | Checklist of the freshwater fishes of South and Central America and the Caribbean Islands. China Natural History Project. |
| Brian Fisher | Assistant Curator | Entomology | Ants - especially diversity and distribution of ants in Africa and Madagascar. Dracula ants (Adetomyrma), Fire ants (Solenopsis invicta) and Argentine ants (Linepithema humile). Ecology, conservation and biodiversity in Africa, Madagascar and South America. | First in-depth inventory of Madagascars "spiny thicket" arthropods. Ant Web: biodiversity and identification of ants in both California and Madagascar. All Species project: working to document all life on Earth. |
| Elizabeth Fourtanier | Research Fellow | Invertebrate Zoology & Geology | Taxonomy, biostratigraphy and evolution of fossil diatoms. | |
| Peter Fritsch | Assistant Curator & Department Chairman | Botany | Flowering plants, especially of the order Ebenales, including the snowdrops (Styrax), silverbells (Halesia), persimmons, and ebonies (Diospyros). | China Natural History Project |
| Michael Ghiselin | Senior Research Fellow | Invertebrate Zoology & Geology | Reproductive systems and phylogeny of opistobranch gastropods, principles of systematics and the history and philosophy of biology, Darwin, evolution, "sex-allocation theory". | Using new molecular techniques to determine the position of the mollusks in the phylogenetic tree. |
| Frank Glennon | Senior Aquatic Biologist | Aquarium | Steinhart Aquarium freshwater fishes. | |
| Terry Gosliner | Senior Curator and Provost | Invertebrate Zoology & Geology | Evolutionary history of gastropod mollusks, particularly the Opisthobranchia (nudibranchs and other sea slugs). Phylogeny and systematics of the Elysiidae. Galapagos Islands. | First comprehensive inventory of nudibranchs along Costa Ricas Pacific Coast. Costa Rica biodiversity. |
| Charles Griswold | Curator and Department Chairman | Entomology | Spider morphology, evolution and behavior. Social spiders in the genus Stegodyphus and kleptoparasites. Habronattus spiders (a genus of small, graceful jumping spiders). Haplogynae (including the common daddy-long-legs spiders and the dreaded brown recluse), Lycosoidea (wolf spiders and their kin), and Orbiculariae (orb-web builders and descendants). | Terrestrial Arthropod Inventory of Madagascar. "Tree of Life" for spiders (NSF project.) China Natural History Project |
| Healy Hamilton | Head of the Center for Biodiversity Research and Information (CBRI) | Ornithology & Mammalogy | Biodiversity, origins of neotropical diversity, molecular phylogeography, historical geology of South America, ecology and conservation of river dolphins, odontocete evolution. | CBRI development. Possible project on river dolphins in China. |
| Sylvia Hope | Research Associate | Ornithology & Mammalogy | Early fossil record; basal systematics of modern birds (Neornithes); systematics and evolution of Corvidae - the jays, crows, and magpies; avian communication. | Fossil birds from the Hornerstown and Navesink formations, New Jersey. The Mesozoic record of Neornithes (modern birds). |
| Ken Howell | Senior Aquatic Biologist | Aquarium | Animal husbandry. | Coral reef husbandry. |
| Tomio Iwamoto | Curator | Ichthyology | Grenadiers (a group of about 300 deep-sea fishes related to the codfish). | Western Pacific, Australian, and Indian Ocean grenadiers. Deep sea marine life in Tasman Sea. |
| Dave Kavanaugh | Senior Curator and Director of Research | Entomology | Beetles, especially systematics, biogeography, evolution, & natural history of carabid beetles (Coleoptera: Carabidae). Biogeography, ecology, and evolution of high-altitude, montane organisms and faunas. | China Natural History Project |
| Patrick Kociolek | Curator and Executive Director | Invertebrate Zoology & Geology | Taxonomy, ultrastructure, systematics and phylogeny of diatoms. | Describing the diversity and morphology of the Gomphonema genus, as well as the biogeography and evolution of the Actinella taxa and their allies in the rhaphidioid lineage. |
| Michelle Koo | Biogeographical Systems Manager | Herpetology | Snakes, frogs, toads, lizards, and salamanders - especially in California. | Herpetology survey of forests in Northern California. |
| Vincent Lee | Curatorial Assistant | Entomology | Scorpions and false scorpions, especially systematics of Pseudoscorpiones, Opiliones, and Scorpiones. Maritime terrestrial arthropods. | Madagascar insects. |
| Al Leviton | Curator | Herpetology | Reptiles and amphibians of Asia. History of the California Academy of Sciences. | Biogeography and systematics of reptiles in the Arabian Peninsula. |
| Douglas Long | Collections Manager of Birds and Mammals Department. Research Associate in Ichthyology Department. | Ornithology & Mammalogy | Ecology, conservation, & biogeography of birds and mammals, application of aviculture to bird conservation and behavioral studies. Skulls, pinnipeds, sharks, fish and fossils. Bird conservation in New Zealand. | Life history studies of New World vultures, bioinventories of birds and mammals in Myanmar, research into pinnipeds as part of the Marine Mammal Stranding Network, and a revised biogeography of central California mammals. |
| Don Macneill | Research Associate | Entomology | Skippers. | High-elevation skippers of South America. |
| Louie Marincovich | Adjunct Curator of Paleontology | Invertebrate Zoology & Geology | Mollusc fossils of the Cenozoic Era, especially in the Arctic. Marine gateways in the Arctic Ocean - including the Bering Strait. | Opening date of the Bering Strait. |
| John McCosker | Senior Scientist and Department Chair | Aquatic Biology | Aquatic animal evolution and behavior. Great white shark (Carcharodon carcharias) behavior. Tropical snake eels and moray eels, evolution of bony fishes, Galapagos Islands fish, Flashlight fish, bioluminescent bacteria, chinook salmon, elasmobranchs. | Snake eels, white shark studies. |
| Rich Mooi | Curator | Invertebrate Zoology & Geology | Echinoderms (sea urchins, sea stars, sand dollars, brittlestars, sea cucumbers, and sea lilies). | Skeletal systems of all echinoderm groups, both fossil and extant. Marine invertebrates in Antarctica, including brooding sea urchins. |
| Norm Penny | Senior Collections Manager | Entomology | Lacewings, Dobsonflies, Mantidflies, Alderflies, Snakeflies, Spongeflies, Antlions and Owlflies, Scorpionflies and Hangingflies. (Neuroptera, Mecoptera, and fulgoroid Homoptera.) | New Species of Chrysopinae (Neuroptera: Chrysopidae) from Costa Rica |
| Wojciech Pulawski | Curator | Entomology | Sphecidae (sphecid wasps, solitary wasps). In charge of Ephemeroptera (mayflies), Hymenoptera (ants, wasps, bees, sawflies, and horntails), Trichoptera (caddisflies) and Thysanoptera (thrips) collections. | A revision of the African wasp genus Tachysphex |
| Bing Quock | Assistant Chairman and Show Producer | Planetarium | General astronomy. San Francisco skies. | |
| Peter Roopnarine | Assistant Curator and Department Chair | Invertebrate Zoology & Geology | Evolution and extinction of marine molluscs in Neogene Tropical America, phylogenetic analysis of the veneridae, Astrobiology - especially the ecomorphology and systematics of thermal spring gastropods, AGAPA - A Genetic Algorithm for Phylogenetic Analysis. | Venerid bivalves, specifically Chione and other related genera, microevolutionary dynamics of Lower Devonian Conodonts, Developing a dynamic analysis of evolutionary time series, thermal spring gastropods in Mexico. |
| Ed Ross | Curator Emeritus | Entomology | Mainly-tropical insects of the order Embiidina (Embioptera, web-spinners, foot-spinners) which are somewhat related to stoneflies, termites, and earwigs. | |
| Pamela Schaller | Aquatic Biologist | Aquarium |
Steinhart Aquarium penguins, sharks, and octopus.
|
Caring for baby sharks born on July 4, 2003. |
| Jere Schweikert | Curatorial Assistant | Entomology | Fruit flies | Madagascar fruit flies. |
| Bart Shepherd | Senior Aquatic Biologist | Aquarium | Coral reef fish and invertebrates. | Growing corals at various depths using a rack system. |
| Sarah Spaulding | Research Associate | Invertebrate Zoology & Geology | Paleoecology, systematics, and biogeography of freshwater diatoms (Bacillariophyceae). | Diatoms in Madagascar, Sao Tome, Mexico. |
| Kim Steiner | Associate Curator | Botany | Snapdragon family - especially Nemesia and Diascia. Oil-producing Orchids and oil-collecting bees. | South African Nemesia, Diascia and orchids, and the biochemistry of floral scents. |
| Lise Thomsen | Senior Preparator & Curatorial Assistant | Ornithology & Mammalogy | Preparation of skins, pelts and bones. | N/A |
| Tom Tucker | Curator | Aquarium | Steinhart Aquarium fish. | |
| Darrel Ubick | Curatorial Assistant | Entomology | Arachnida (spiders, ticks, mites, harvestmen, and scorpions) and Myriapoda (centipedes and millipedes). Troglobites (cave organisms.) | Cave-dwelling insects in Santa Cruz and Texas. "Tree of Life" for spiders (NSF project). |
| Bob Van Syoc | Senior Collections Manager | Invertebrate Zoology & Geology | Barnacles, health and ecology of the Aleutian archipelagos waters. | Evolution and biogeography of barnacles. |
| Jens Vindum | Senior Collections Manager | Herpetology | Snakes, frogs, toads, lizards, and salamanders - especially in California. | China Natural History Project, Myanmar Biodiversity Project, creating Myanmar museum. |
| Jeff Wilkinson | Research Associate and Yunnan Project Coordinator | Herpetology | Rhacophorid frogs from Japan, the Ryukyu Archipelago, China and Taiwan. Familiar with issues surrounding red-legged frogs and California tiger salamanders. | Survey of California reptiles and amphibians. China Natural History Project. Myanmar Biodiversity Project |
| Gary Williams | Curator | Invertebrate Zoology & Geology | Octocorallian coelenterates (soft corals, sea fans, and sea pens). Systematics of soft corals, gorgonians, and pennatulaceans. Galapagos Islands. | Coral reefs of the tropical western Pacific, particularly Melanesia, the Philippines, and Micronesia. Phylogenetic relationships of sea pens. |
| Bob Zuparko | Curatorial Assistant | Entomology | Ephemeroptera (mayflies), Hymenoptera (ants, wasps, bees, sawflies, and horntails), Trichoptera (caddisflies) and Thysanoptera (thrips), insects stored in alcohol. |
