Visiting Professor of Entomology; Curator of the Insect Collection
I work at Zamorano as an employee of the “Integrated Experts Programme, CIM” which is part of GTZ, the German government’s aid organization for sustainable development. They hired me to teach at Zamorano for two years, with the option to extend for another four. CIM and GTZ support many organizations throughout the world.
My time is split between two departments: I teach an entomology lab for third-year students of Agricultural Science and Production (CPA), I contribute to a biodiversity class, and I give a practicum on insect ecology and biodiversity for the Socioeconomic Development and Environmental Science (DSEA) department. In early 2009, I designed the new practicum in entomology for all second-year students.
I am also the scientific curator and project coordinator for Zamorano’s insect collection. This extraordinary collection includes more than 200,000 specimens, and Zamorano recently secured an agreement to add a collection from Nicaragua, which represents another 250,000. When the two are combined, Zamorano will have the largest and most important collection of arthropods in Central America and the largest representing insects from Honduras and Nicaragua. The collection attracts scientists from all over the world, and this past year we welcomed specialists from several Central American countries, as well as scholars from Harvard University, the Evergreen State College, and the Florida Museum of Natural History in the United States.
Honduras is a exciting place for an entomologist as there are still many large tracts of natural habitat and a considerable amount of insect biodiversity. Recently I traveled with DSEA students to the Gulf of Fonseca where we identified many interesting insects including sand and digger wasps, thermophile crickets and katydids, darkling beetles, ant lions, robber flies, millipedes, and arachnids, such as scorpions and whip spiders — there was a lot to see! It might even have been the first entomological investigation in this coastal dry forest.
Elmshorn, Germany
Undergraduate degree in Biology, University of Hamburg
M.S. in Biology (specialization in Entomology), University of Hamburg
Ph.D. in Biology (specialization in Entomology), University of Hamburg
Joined Zamorano: October 2008
Subjects include: Entomology, Biodiversity and Integrated Pest Management (IPM)
(Annual Report 2009)
