Dr Shane McEvey
Shane is an entomologist and a publisher. After graduating in Zoology and Genetics at La Trobe University he studied evolutionary biology in Johannesburg at the University of the Witwatersrand for his PhD. From boyhood he had been a keen insect collector, by his mid twenties he had participated in numerous expeditions to remote forests in tropical parts of Australia and southern Africa… expeditioning became an important aspect of his life. His work in Madagascar and his training in evolutionary theory resulted in a permanent posting with the CNRS (National Centre for Scientific Research) in Paris in 1986. But by 1990 the allure of collecting adventures in the tropics of Australia, New Guinea and the Pacific resulted in him deciding to return to Australia where he became an entomologist at the Australian Museum. After working concurrently at the University of Sydney and the Australian Museum until 1997 he became the Editor of Records of the Australian Museum. He is a specialist taxonomist of the dipteran family Drosophilidae and has, through his own collecting, discovered hundreds of new drosophilid species in Madagascar, southern Africa, New Guinea, French Polynesia, Fiji, Samoa, Vanuatu and throughout tropical Australia. In 1992 he scanned and edited all the works of the evolutionist Hugh Paterson and published them in a book with Johns Hopkins University Press, since then he has digitized a large part of the drosophilid taxonomic literature and has coordinated an Australian Museum project to digitize the 158-year legacy of science published by the museum. As a teacher, he has always enjoyed sharing his fascination for the evolution of life and the diversity of ways of understanding it.
Qualifications
B.Sc.Hons (La Trobe); Ph.D. (Wits)
