Famous arachnologists?

[Venom1080]

I've heard of some, but can anyone give me a good list of some of the more well known ones out there? Just curious.

I imagine youve heard of more than a couple @boina

 

[Sergic]

I've heard of some, but can anyone give me a good list of some of the more well known ones out there? Just curious.

I imagine youve heard of more than a couple @boina

The few that immediately come to mind are Eileen Hebets, George Uetz, and Marie Herberstein. These researchers study behavior and cognition, mostly focusing on spiders.

 

[boina]

Uhhhh... I'm very bad at this. I usually know more about the research than the researchers... Let's see who I can come up with, in no particular order:

Fernando Perez Miles - who hasn't heard of him
Norman Platnick - again, who hasn't heard of him
Candido Mello Leitao - early taxonomist, just look at the list of first descriptions to find plenty more of those, I'm not going to list them.
Pierre Bonnet - French, did a lot of early work
Stuart Longhorn - on this boards, too
Günter Schmidt - German, did a lot of taxonomy work
Fritz Vollrath - another German who did studies about silk, working in Britain
Lucia Kuhn-Nentwig - working about venom in Switzerland, not sure about 'famous', though
Songping Liang - lots of work about venom and Chinese spiders, probably famous in Asia, does that count?
Pierre Escoubas - French, lots and lots of work about venom and medical applications of venom
Rene de Oliveira Beleboni - Pharmacologist, works about venom and medical use of venom, not sure about 'famous'
Glenn King - famous venom researcher, but not exclusively spiders
Alexander Vassilevski - more venom
Thomas Scheibel - German, studies silk and it's possibilities for technical use
Rainer Foelix - German/Swiss, his book 'Biology of Spiders' even got translated into English

Ok, I'm running out of coffee... . This list his highly biased towards my interests and Europeans and does not claim to be inclusive in any way! A lot of those people aren't really arachnologists by trade and just happen to work in that area. I may think of more people later.

 

[FrDoc]

Uhhhh... I'm very bad at this. I usually know more about the research than the researchers... Let's see who I can come up with, in no particular order:

Fernando Perez Miles - who hasn't heard of him
Norman Platnick - again, who hasn't heard of him
Candido Mello Leitao - early taxonomist, just look at the list of first descriptions to find plenty more of those, I'm not going to list them.
Pierre Bonnet - French, did a lot of early work
Stuart Longhorn - on this boards, too
Günter Schmidt - German, did a lot of taxonomy work
Fritz Vollrath - another German who did studies about silk, working in Britain
Lucia Kuhn-Nentwig - working about venom in Switzerland, not sure about 'famous', though
Songping Liang - lots of work about venom and Chinese spiders, probably famous in Asia, does that count?
Pierre Escoubas - French, lots and lots of work about venom and medical applications of venom
Rene de Oliveira Beleboni - Pharmacologist, works about venom and medical use of venom, not sure about 'famous'
Glenn King - famous venom researcher, but not exclusively spiders
Alexander Vassilevski - more venom
Thomas Scheibel - German, studies silk and it's possibilities for technical use
Rainer Foelix - German/Swiss, his book 'Biology of Spiders' even got translated into English

Ok, I'm running out of coffee... . This list his highly biased towards my interests and Europeans and does not claim to be inclusive in any way! A lot of those people aren't really arachnologists by trade and just happen to work in that area. I may think of more people later.

Showoff.

 

[viper69]

How could someone not include Rick West?? The man is self-taught AND he advises governments on T conservation :wideyed:

 

[AphonopelmaTX]

How could someone not include Rick West?? The man is self-taught AND he advises governments on T conservation :wideyed:

I was just thinking the same thing after reading through this thread. Rick West would by the only arachnologist that one can consider "famous" due to presenting several TV documentaries on tarantulas. The others are well known in the arachnological communities due to the high number of publications. I'm also surprised no one mentioned Robert Raven of the Queensland Museum. He has been a very prolific contributor to mygalomorph systematics during his long career. He was also in a TV documentary on Australian tarantulas so that makes him somewhat famous. Being on TV once automatically makes you famous by the way.

Günter Schmidt - German, did a lot of taxonomy work

Gunter Schmidt is well known for doing a lot of really bad taxonomy work. So many species described based on exuviae and pet trade material and without comparing to type material.

 

[boina]

@AphonopelmaTX "Gunter Schmidt is well known for doing a lot of really bad taxonomy work. So many species described based on exuviae and pet trade material and without comparing to type material."

Nobody said the Arachnologist had to be good, only famous. And G. Schmidt is definitely famous

 

[Venom1080]

@AphonopelmaTX "Gunter Schmidt is well known for doing a lot of really bad taxonomy work. So many species described based on exuviae and pet trade material and without comparing to type material."

Nobody said the Arachnologist had to be good, only famous. And G. Schmidt is definitely famous

What about von wirth? Volker, or however you spell the guys name.

 

[viper69]

Being on TV once automatically makes you famous by the way

If that's the case, one would have to include Dr. Jason Bond. He was on the Steven Colbert show for his spider discoveries

 

[Sinned]

Well he did make a lot of movies... (Jason Bourne/Mr Bond)

I'll show myself out...

 

[boina]

So, how famous do people have to be to count? I assumed 'famous' meant famous in the Arachnid Community, because if you mean generally famous there aren't really a lot.

Anyway I thought about another one:

Gustavo Horminga from Washington University - about spider genetics and phylogenetics and I really like his work.

 

[cold blood]

Samuel Marshall

 

[Venom1080]

So, how famous do people have to be to count? I assumed 'famous' meant famous in the Arachnid Community, because if you mean generally famous there aren't really a lot.

Anyway I thought about another one:

Gustavo Horminga from Washington University - about spider genetics and phylogenetics and I really like his work.

Just arachnid community.