IBSS

Curator of Botany, Emeritus

Botany, Systematics, Evolution

For the past 30 years the major emphasis of my research has been the study of New World Acanthaceae (shrimp plants and their relatives). Although known in temperate regions primarily for showy ornamentals, the Acanthaceae are the 11th largest family of flowering plants (with more than 4,000 species) and a prominent element of many tropical regions. Mexico and Central America comprise a major center of diversity for this family.

Rosielyn (Rose) De Guzman

Curatorial Assistant, Botany, and Research Assistant, Geology

I came to the Academy as a volunteer in 2016 in the Geology Department. Now, I split my time working as a Research Assistant for Geology and a Curatorial Assistant in Botany. Some of my duties include collections care, data cleaning, digitization, loan processing, volunteer management, and assisting visiting researchers. I have a B.S. from UC Davis in Wildlife, Fish and Conservation Biology with a minor in Environmental Toxicology. Recently, I graduated from San Jose State University's Master of Library and Information Science program.

Rachel Diaz-Bastin

Curatorial Assistant III, Entomology

Robert Drewes

Curator of Herpetology, Emeritus

Jack Dumbacher

Curator of Birds and Mammals

Evolutionary Biology, Birds and Mammals

I am interested in ecology and evolution, and most of my work has focused on birds and more recently mammals. Our department of birds and mammals conducts research on local marine mammals, collaborates with US Fish and Wildlife for important surveys of public lands, and we do a variety of research ranging from studying why birds fly into windows in urban settings to how toxic birds acquire and use poisons for defense to using genetics to study relationships among species of animals (and more...) We currently have students in the lab ranging from high school, Masters students, PhD students

Sean Edgerton

Science Illustrator, Botanical Illustrator and Post-M.Sc. Research Fellow, Microbiology

At the California Academy of Sciences (CAS) I work as an interdepartmental research and scientific illustrator. In the Botany Department, I work as a Science Illustrator to create highly-detailed botanical plates of tropical plants that are completely new to science and immediately threatened by habitat destruction and climate change. In Ornithology and Mammalogy and under the Marine Mammal Stranding Network I conduct fieldwork to perform necropsies on stranded whales in the San Francisco Bay Area to uncover the cause of death and dive into the field of marine virology.