Please note: The Academy will close at 3 pm on Thursday, April 18, for Big Bang Gala.
Search for Academy curators, collections managers, and research staff working to answer some of the world's most pressing scientific questions.
Curator of Arachnology, Emeritus
Systematics, Biogeography, Evolution, and natural history of spiders (Araneae).
I describe spider diversity, focusing especially on Africa, Madagascar, Southeast Asia and South America. I formerly led the CAS Arachnology lab where I supervised twenty- two graduate students and ten postdoctoral researchers. I am a Fellow of the Willi Hennig Society and was President of the American Arachnological Society and the International Society of Arachnology (ISA).
DNA Barcoding Postdoctoral Researcher
California Insect Barcode Initiative
Dr. Anna Holmquist is a postdoctoral researcher in the Center for Comparative Genomics (CCG) working on a multi-institutional project to generate a comprehensive DNA barcode reference library for all Californian insects by utilizing museum collections. Holmquist received her PhD from the University of California, Berkeley in May 2023. She is broadly interested in understanding the processes behind biodiversity formation and promoting resilience.
Curator of Ichthyology, Emeritus
Systematics of grenadiers (Family Macrouridae)
My principal research interest concerns the systematics of grenadiers, a group of more than 400 deep-sea fishes related to the codfish. Grenadiers are found in all oceans, but 80-90% of the species are confined to subtropical and tropical seas. Most grenadiers live on the continental slope at depths between 200 m and 2000 m, but some range to below 6000 m. A few species are commercially exploited by large trawlers dragging at depths often exceeding 1000 m. The group seems to have evolved in the deep sea, as no shallow-water close relatives are known.
Assistant Curator of Botany and Howell Chair of Western North American Botany
As a curator in the Botany Department at the California Academy of Sciences, Dr. Sarah Jacobs is part of a core team of scientists that collectively curates the Academy’s collection of over 2.3 million herbarium specimens. As the Howell Chair of Western North American Botany, she is particularly focused on guiding and shaping the collection of Western North American plants, ensuring their preservation, growth, and relevance into the future.
Research Assistant, Botany
I am a research assistant in the Nagalingum lab in the Botany department. My current research project is on cycads from South Africa in the genus Encephalartos (Zamiaceae). Many of the species from this region are functionally extinct in the wild or critically endangered, so we are using genomic data to assess the genetic diversity of these species in order to inform ex situ conservation efforts. My previous research projects with Dr. Nagalingum focused on Malaysian fern phylogenetics, and population genetics of an Australian cycad, Cycas candida (Cycadaceae).
Senior Research Fellow, Entomology and Center for Comparative Genomics
To understand and help sustain our biodiverse planet, my lab at the California Academy of Sciences engages in transdisciplinary scienceto seek solutions to challenges from conservation to emerging infectious disease to forest resilience in a changing climate. I work in close collaboration with several groups at the Academy including the MicroLife lab as well as Entomology, the Center for Comparative Genomics and Ornithology and Mammalogy.
Visiting Researcher, Microbiology
Dr. Nur Faeza Abu Kassim is a medical entomologist that specializing in mosquito role of transmitting mosquito-borne diseases. Her work focuses on the biology, ecology, genetics and control of vector mosquitoes. The main research interest is on vector mosquitoes and its role/relation into epidemiology of disease transmission, mosquito-microbiome and novel mosquito control strategies such as sugar bait technology and odor mediated nectar-foraging for mosquito-borne diseases particularly from flavivirus group.
Curator of Entomology, Emeritus
Systematics, biogeography, evolution, and natural history of carabid beetles (Coleoptera: Carabidae).
Changes in the altitudinal distributions of montane carabid beetles as indicators of climate change.
Biogeography, ecology, and evolution of high-altitude, montane organisms and faunas.
General aspects of biogeography and evolution.
General principles and methods of systematics.