Dr. David Maddison hired

Dr. David Maddison - formerly from University of Arizona - is hired as the new Harold & Leona Rice Professor of Systematic Entomology.  Dr. Maddison is a internationally recognized entomologists who has made major contributions to the field of systematics, evolutionary biology and beetle taxonomy.  He, along with his twin brother Wayne Maddison (UBC), wrote and developed the software package McClade - software that revolutionized the way evolutionary biologists examined morphological and molecular evolution.  Perhaps what made McClade so popular was that it provided an extremely approachable, visually oriented mechanism for evolutionary biologists to examine characteristics of their organisms in a phylogenetic context.  Although McClade has largely been replaced by its more advanced cousin: Mesquite (also written by David & Wayne) - it continues to be used extensively around the world.

Again, demonstrating to people that an evolutionary framework (e.g., a phylogeny) is an extremely effective means of organizing biological data - David was instrumental in creating the initial 'Tree of Life Website' or 'TOL' a precursor to other global biodiversity websites (e.g., Encyclopedia of Life, Wikispecies, etc.).  The tree of life website solicited experts from all around the world to post information about Earth's biota in a giant virtual 'tree'.

In addition to promoting 'tree-thinking', David Maddison is a well respected Coleopterist who's research has focussed on teasing apart the biology, evolutionary history and biogeography of a hyper-diverse group of carabid beetles: Bembidion.  To most coloepterists, the branch in the tree of life reserved for Bembidion, is a complex, intractible knot of incredibly similar little beetles.  Merely identifying a species of Bembidion can be a challenge and finding characters to make sense of their diversity for most entomologists would be impossible.  Yet David, with a great deal of patience and hard work, has examined internal and external anatomy as well as sequenced numerous genes for these beetles and thereby shed some light on their biology, diversity and evolutionary history.

Dr. Maddison, the Zoology Department and the staff of the Oregon State Arthropod Collection are all incredibly excited.  Having Dr. Maddison here at OSU and as OSAC's new Director will undoubtedly help the collection grow and re-establish itself as one of the top ranking university owed insect collections in the country.  Dr. Maddison (Director) and Dr. Marshall (Curator/Collections Manager) have already been discussing future plans for the OSAC and its future is definitely looking bright.  

 (left) Bembidion chalceum from David's website: www.bembidion.org