Life Collections: staff
Collections staff have varied research interests in the area of insect taxonomy, physiology and behaviour, and maintain an active acquisition policy. Further details of their work are summarised below.
Head of Life Collections: Mr D. J. Mann
Collections staff:
Mr M. Carnall
Ms K. Child
Dr J. Hogan
Ms B. Palumbo
Ms Z. M. Simmons
Ms A. D. Spooner
Ms E. Westwig
Darren Mann Head of Life Collections
- Responsible for day-to-day running of the Life Collections.
- Curatorial interests: collections management and the curation-conservation of historical entomological collections.
- Research interests: general entomology; dung beetle (Scarabaeidae: Scarabaeinae) taxonomy and ecology; British dung beetle distribution patterns; taxonomy and biology of the cockroaches (Blattaria).
- Current projects include: historic collections and their types in the OUMNH; ecology and distribution of Bolivian Scarabaeinae; British oil beetle (Coleoptera: Meloidae) distribution and conservation; national organiser for the U.K. Scarabaeoidea Recording Scheme; Bornean dung beetles ecology.
- Teaching: entomology; field studies.
Mark Carnall Collections Manager
- Responsible for vertebrate and non-arthopod invertebrate collections.
- Curatorial interests: collections management, conservation and university teaching and research collections
- Research interests: general natural history, digitisation and natural history collections, historical preparation, teaching collections and OUMNH collectors and collections
James Hogan Collections Manager
- Responsible for Hymenoptera and Lepidoptera collections.
- Curatorial interests: curation and preservation of historic insect collections, preservation of DNA in insect specimens.
- Current projects include: re-curation and re-housing of the Coleoptera collections; systematics and biogeography of pedunculate ground beetles (Coleoptera: Carabidae: Scaritinae).
Bethany Palumbo Collections conservator (currently on maternity leave)
- Responsible for preventive and remedial conservation of Life Collections.
- Research interests: Integrated Pest Management; conservation methods for the treatment of skin and bone materials; specimen preparation.
Zoë Simmons Collections Manager
- Responsible for Arachnid and Myriapoda and Diptera.
- Curatorial interests: re-curation and cataloguing of the family Erotylidae collections. Upkeep and curatorial maintenance of collections listed above and participation in the large-scale re-housing project currently underway.
- Current projects include: re-housing, re-curation of the world Diptera collections; re-curation of the Arachnid collection; re-curation and taxonomy of the fungus beetle (Erotylidae) collection.
Amoret Spooner Collections Manager
- Responsible for Coleoptera, Hemiptera and small orders collections.
- Curatorial interests: Histeridae
- Current projects include: re-curation and conservation of historic entomological collections.
Eileen Westwig Collections Manager
- Responsible for vertebrate and non-arthopod invertebrate collections.
- Curatorial interests: mammals, conservation, collections management
Enquiries regarding the collections should be sent to: life@oum.ox.ac.uk