| Dr Dai Herbert
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| Chief Curator - Mollusca |
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B.Sc. Hons, Zoology, London University.
Ph.D. Zoology, London University.
Dai Herbert is the Chief Curator of the Mollusca Section of the Natural Science
Department. He obtained his Ph.D. from London University in 1984, the
same year that he joined the staff of the Natal Museum. He has a
serious thing about snails. He has published more than 50 papers in
peer-reviewed journals, 3 book chapters, 1 book (Field Guide to the Snails and Slugs of Eastern South Africa with
Dick Kilburn) and over 50 popular articles. He is highly respected both
nationally and internationally (he is an NRF rated scientist), and
holds or has held the following positions on national and international
bodies related to his research:
- Secretary of Unitas Malacologica (global professional body for malacologists (current)
- Member of IUCN Mollusc Specialist Group (current)
- Vice-chair of IUCN Southern African Invertebrate Specialist Group (current)
- Member of the SA Biosystematics Initiative Steering Committee (current)
- Member of the NRF Animal Sciences Specialist Committee (2002-4)
- Councillor: Research portfolio; SA Museums Association (1999-2003)
- Natal Evolutionary Biology Society: president (1996), secretary-treasurer (1997-1998).
- Dept Arts, Culture, Science and Technology - Foresight Initiative - Biodiversity Working Group (1998-2000).
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| Dr. Mike Mostovski
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| Chief Curator - Arthropoda |
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| Linda Davis
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| Research Technician |
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| Linda Davis is the Research Technician for the
Mollusca Section of the Natural Science Department. She was born and
educated in Pietermaritzburg, and apart from a year spent at
Kirstenbosch Botanical Gardens as the resident artist, has lived in
Pietermaritzburg all her life. She is a self-taught artist specializing
in monochrome line drawings of botanical and molluscan specimens, but
enjoys painting natural history subjects as well, especially frogs and
fish. She worked as a research technician in the herbarium on the
Pietermaritzburg campus of UKZN before taking up her current post at
the Natal Museum in 1991. Linda enjoys traveling and growing orchids,
and much of her spare time is spent in the care and rehabilitation of
injured bats.
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| Ntombifuthi Mkhize
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| Collections Officer - Mollusca |
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| Ntombifuthi Mkhize is the Collections Officer for the
Mollusca Section in the Department of Natural Sciences. Ntombi is from
Pietermaritzburg, and began work at the Natal Museum as a Technical
Assistant in the Department of Archaeology and Anthropolgy (1988-1991).
After this, she spent five years working for the KwaZulu Cultural
Museum in Ulundi. She returned to the Natal Museum in 1996 to take up
her present post in the Malacology Division as a data capturer. Her job
entails curating and processing specimens of snails, shells and slugs.
She has participated in research into the utilization of invertebrates
in the traditional medicine trade, and in introducing school children
to the wonders of Malacology and the importance of the Museum's mollusc
collection. She has received two awards for outstanding service to the
Museum. She enjoys visiting other museums in South Africa.
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| Greg Davies
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| Curator - Arthropoda |
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| Greg Davies is a right-handed, left-brained
projector-in-speculative learning ("curator") in the Arthropoda Section
of the Natural Science Department. He recently completed his MSc
dissertation on the systematics of the bee genus Scrapter,
which is near-endemic to southern Africa. His research has now turned
to the taxonomy of lauxaniid flies, a largely ignored species-rich
family of acalyptrate flies. Occasionally Davies stirs himself to
prepare scientific papers in the old-fashioned Victorian mould, but
otherwise he can be found drinking lots of coffee in the staff
tea-room, or collecting insects in the field.
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