Speakers
Meet the experts who will be leading presentations at ButterflyFest this year.
Wildlife Research Biologist, Author & Artist
Thomas J. Allen served as a wildlife research biologist for the West Virginia Division of Natural Resources where he conducted research on a number of species primarily mammals and birds. During his 32-year tenure at West Virginia he also studied butterflies and wrote a best-selling field guide, The Butterflies of West Virginia and their Caterpillars, published in 1997. He authored a number of published articles, and is a contributing editor for the Birds and Blooms magazine. Tom co-authored Caterpillars in the Field and Garden: A Field Guide to Butterfly Caterpillars of North America along with Jim Brock and Jeffrey Glassberg in 2005. In 2003, Tom moved to South Florida and for a few years worked for the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission conducting telemetry research on burrowing owls. A nationally recognized wildlife artist, Tom Allen has produced paintings for a number of organizations including the SOS Rainforest Alliance, Ducks Unlimited, West Virginia Raptor Rehabilitations Center and Rotary International. Three of his painting designs are used for license plates for West Virginia motor vehicles to raise funds for West Virginia's Wildlife Diversity Program.
Presentations: Florida Butterflies and Their Caterpillars, Developing Gardens for Butterflies, Moths and Pollinators
Curator, McGuire Center for Lepidoptera and Biodiversity
Dr. Charles Covell is the Curator of larger moths in the collections of the McGuire Center for Lepidoptera and Biodiversity and has an adjunct faculty appointment in the Dept. of Entomology and Nematology at the University of Florida. Prior to his association with the Center, he was on the faculty at the University of Louisville and taught a number of entomology courses and curated the insect collection there. Dr. Covell was the founder of the Kentucky Lepidopterists' Society and has developed a database for the occurrence of the 2500 species of butterflies and moths recorded for the state of Kentucky. Active in a number of professional societies including the internation Lepidopterists' Society, he is also known for his authoritative book, A Field Guide to Moths of Eastern North America.
Presentation: Behind-the-Scenes Tours of the McGuire Center
Assistant Curator, McGuire Center for Lepidoptera and Biodiversity
Dr. Jaret C. Daniels is IFAS Assistant Professor of Entomology and Assistant Director for Research for the Florida Museum of Natural History's McGuire Center for Lepidoptera and Biodiversity. He holds an affiliate position with UF's School of Natural Resources and Environment. Jaret received his B.S. in Biology from Saint John's University in Minnesota and Ph.D. from the Department of Entomology and Nematology at the University of Florida. He completed his Postdoctoral training in insect conservation at the Florida Museum in Gainesville. His research focuses on insect ecology and conservation, with particular emphasis on Lepidoptera, seasonal ecology, population biology, and behavior. He has over 16 years of experience working with imperiled Lepidoptera in the U.S. and Caribbean. These projects have involved various aspects of research, recovery and public education. He is the founder and director of the Florida Butterfly Monitoring Network, a multi-agency program that brings together volunteers, AZA institution staff and scientists to promote and survey the health of butterfly populations throughout Florida. He currently serves as Vice-Chair of the steering committee for the Butterfly Conservation Initiative, a national coalition of organizations across North America dedicated to the conservation of threatened, endangered, and vulnerable North American butterflies and the habitats that sustain them, with a focus on recovery, research, and education. He has authored more than 50 scientific papers, popular articles, and books dealing with butterflies, conservation, integrated pest management, and wildlife landscaping.
Presentations: Butterflies and Birds Field Trip, Florida Butterflies and Wildflowers
Technical Research Assistant, McGuire Center for Lepidoptera and Biodiversity
Information coming soon!
Presentation: Butterfly Pinning Workshop
Director, McGuire Center for Lepidoptera and Biodiversity
Dr. Tom Emmel is the director of McGuire Center for Lepidoptera and Biodiversity at the Florida Museum of Natural History, where he also serves as a curator. He has published more than 400 papers and 35 books on butterflies, their natural history, ecology, evolution, biodiversity and conservation. He has traveled to more than 45 countries around the globe – camera and net in hand – to carry out biodiversity and ecological research on butterflies.
Presentation: The Astounding Migrations of the Monarch Butterfly
Professor, UF Entomology and Nematology Department
Dr. Glenn Hall began keeping honey as a hobby in the sixth grade while living in Baton Rouge. He later worked at the Baton Rouge USDA bee lab while in high school and while enrolled at Louisiana State University. He received his Ph.D. in genetics at the University of California, Berkeley, and later did research at Scripps Institution of Oceanography, La Jolla, and at Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory. Dr. Hall studied fertilization and Iembryonic development using the sea urchin, and epithelial formation using cultured mammalian cells. He began genetic studies of the African Honey Bee in 1985, which continued after he joined the faculty iin the Entomology and Nematology Department at UF in 1986. The past 4 years, Dr. Hall has been studying the native bees of north-central Florida.
Presentation: Native Bees: An Essential Natural Resource
Vivarium Assistant Manager, Butterfly Rainforest
As a child Jeff Hansen was passionate about the outdoors and at an early age developed a tremendous interest in plants and insects. He accepted the position as horticulturist at the Florida Museum of Natural History's Butterfly Rainforest exhibit in 2005 and most recently was involved in developing the butterfly plant sale which takes place at the Museum on weekends. Hansen graduated from Alfred State College in 1983 and for 15 years prior to his employment at the Museum he owned and operated a large landscape company for which he was the primary landscape designer.
Presentation: Butterfly Garden Design Workshop
Florida Museum Palynology and Paleobotany Courtesy Research Scientist
David Jarzen is a palynologist (fossil pollen and spores), botanist and geologist at the Florida Museum of Natural History, University of Florida. He has spent about 45 years in the field looking at ancient environments, as seen through the fossil record of pollen. Through his travels around the world he has seen and photographed the beauty and mystery of the flowering plants, and the mechanisms by which pollen is transported by animals and wind.
Presentation: Pollen and Pollination
Curator, McGuire Center for Lepidoptera and Biodiversity
Jacqueline Miller is the Allyn Curator for Lepidoptera at the McGuire Center and is actively engaged in research and fieldwork, especially in the West Indies and Central and South America. Her research interests include the systematics, life history, biodiversity and biogeography of butterflies, with particular focus on the Castniidae or butterfly moths.
Presentation: Behind-the-Scenes Tours of the McGuire Center
Shady Oaks Butterfly Farm
Edith Smith's passion for butterflies began as she watched a predator chase a butterfly. This passion grew into Shady Oaks Butterfly Farm, supplying butterflies for purposes that range from education to release. Edith has a background in horticulture and her husband, Stephen, is a retired pharmacist. Their farm now raises up to 5,700 butterflies per week. Her time is often spent in the field, observing and photographing butterflies and moths as well as conducting various research projects at the farm. Edith also conducts seminars and internships instructing other butterfly enthusiasts about butterflies and butterfly farming. She has taught hundreds of individuals from 11 countries through these internships and seminars.
Presentation: Raising Butterflies for Fun and Profit
Collections Manager, McGuire Center for Lepidoptera and Biodiversity
Andrei Sourakov studied Entomology at Moscow State University as an undergraduate and received his doctorate from the University of Florida in 1997. His research interests include taxonomy, systematics and ecology of Lepidoptera. Sourakov is currently working at the Florida Museum of Natural History's McGuire Center for Lepidoptera and Biodiversity as a collections coordinator.
Presentation: Behind-the-Scenes Tours of the McGuire Center
Doctoral Fellow, McGuire Center for Lepidoptera and Biodiversity
Court Whelan is a doctoral fellow with a specialization in ecotourism entomology, and this study program promotes the study and conservation of insects through tourism. He is also the general manager of Expedition Travel, and he organizes six to eight trips each year to study wildlife around the world, some in conjunction with the Florida Museum of Natural History. Whelan has led ecotourism trips to Belize, Mexico, Panama, Costa Rica, Ecuador, the Galapagos Islands and Madagascar. When he is not taking classes or traveling, he makes films and postcards from footage that he has shot during his trips.
Presentation: The Marvelous Monarch and Its Migration