Scorpion Systematics Research Group

Suzanna Dodd was born in San Francisco, California, and spent most of her childhood and adolescence as a homeschooled student in Huntington, West Virginia. In 2007 she completed her B.A. in liberal arts at Sarah Lawrence College, where she pursued her interests in Islamic mysticism and marine biology . In 2002 she became fascinated with tarantulas,and has maintained a personal collection ever since. She began volunteering at AMNH in April 2008 and is currently pursuing a career in Customs and Border Protection. Suzanna worked with the Scorpion Research Group rebottling the Type collection, part of the main collection, and labelling new acquisitions.

Zach Valois, an undergraduate student at Salt Lake Community College, UT, was born in Pocatello, Idaho. He has been interested in invertebrate biology since he was a child and spent the last six years working with arachnids in the field. Since 2007, Zach has assisted the NSF-REVSYS Vaejovidae project with fieldwork throughout Arizona, Nevada, and Utah. He has also assisted the UMNH with curating and cataloging the collection, in addition to volunteering for Dr. Brent E. Hendrixson, East Carolina University, with fieldwork throughout Arizona, California, and Nevada. Zach is a member of the American Arachnological Society and the American Tarantula society. Zach currently has specific interests in interspecific interactions and how they affect arachnid biogeography. He plans to continue his education working with arachnid ecology and systematics.

A Scottsdale, Arizona, native, Kari McWest grew up in Texas where he developed an interest in tarantulas. He caught his first scorpions while hunting tarantulas in the Texas Hill Country at age 9 and has been hooked ever since. In his early teens, his family returned to Arizona where he met and "studied" under Dr. Herbert L. Stahnke and met Dr. Mont Cazier and a young Oscar Francke. One of his collections-dated 1979, at age 15-was "rediscovered" recently at the CAS. Back in Texas, he managed a tropical fish hatchery. Under the urging of Dr. David Sissom in 1991, Kari received a GED and attended Stephen F. Austin State University in Nacogdoches. Since then, the two have collected scorpions and other arachnids throughout northern Mexico, New Mexico, and West Texas, and as his student assisted with research in the Texas Big Bend. In 1994, Kari volunteered at the Southwestern Research Station. He received his Bachelor's Degree in 1995, then studied under Sissom at West Texas A&M University, Canyon, where he received his Master's Degree and a family, with Sissom as Best Man. Currently, Kari spends his time with his four children (who also collect scorpions), is the Senior Editor for the American Tarantula Society, pretends to be a Chemist for Tyson Foods, Inc., studies genealogy, cacti, and Pleistocene Climatology, and collects scorpions whenever and wherever he can. He can be reached via his scorpion website or at kari.mcwest@gmail.com

Ofelia Delgado was born in Mexico City. She completed her B.Sc. in Biology at the Facultad de Ciencias, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México (UNAM) in 2000, based on a floristic survey of tropical dry forest. After graduating, she assisted in the curation of the Section of Odonata in the Insects National Collection, Instituto de Biología, UNAM for two years. She studied at that time the Odonata of Jalisco. Her experience in the field includes collections of arachnids, insects and plants in Central and Southern Mexico. She is presently volunteering in the Molecular Systematics Laboratory at the AMNH sequencing vaejovid scorpions for the NSF REVSYS Vaejovidae project.

Ilsa has volunteered at the AMNH for over 20 years. She has been working with the Scorpion Research Group to database the reprint collection in Endnote, and databased the Type collection.

Howard Fiedler grew up in the Bronx, and explored the AMNH as a child, where he developed a fascination with natural history. This interest increased during his education at Stuyvesant High School and The City College of New York, where he earned a B.S. in Biology and Chemistry. Howard then moved to New York University, graduating as an M.D. Although he spent his professional life as an Ophthalmologist in Milwaukee, WI, Howard maintained a peripheral interest in natural history. After relocating to New York, he applied for and was accepted as a Volunteer in the Division of Invertebrate Zoology, where he has assisted with the organization of specimen and reprint collections since. Howard collects insects informally and is proud to be counted among the Volunteers helping to maintain the high standards of learning and public service at the AMNH.

Jeremy Huff was born in Toronto, Canada. He started his undergraduate degree at Simon Fraser University, Vancouver, British Columbia, and is presently completing it at Rutgers University, New Jersey. He also works part-time at the AMNH for Dr. Kimberly Russell photographing spiders for her project, SPIDA, and volunteers in the Division of Invertebrate Zoology assisting with the upkeep of the Arachnid and Myriapod Collections. After graduation, Huff plans to commence a Ph.D. at City College, New York, on the taxonomy and systematics of the Uropygi, under the guidance of Lorenzo Prendini. Huff has extensive field experience collecting arachnids in Cameroon, Costa Rica, Dominican Republic, French Guiana, Guinea-Bissau, Malaysia, Martinique, Senegal, and the southwestern USA.

Tom Sullivan was born in Bethesda, Maryland, USA. He completed an AA degree in Mental Health in 1985 and is currently working in the Psychiatry Department of Beth Israel Medical Center on an inpatient unit. Tom has been volunteering in Invertebrate Zoology since 1997, where has assists with the sorting and labelling of the Arachnid and Myriapod Collections, the packing and unpacking of loans, and the maintenance of the live arachnids for display purposes. Tom assisted with the resettlement of arachnids and myriapods from the former Department of Entomology to the new facility in the Natural Science Building on the sixth floor of the Museum. Tom is Secretary of the New York Entomological Society and has a keen interest in theriidid and sicariid spiders.