Jerry Rozen, the senior staff member of the Division, was trained at the University of Pennsylvania, University of Kansas, and University of California where he received his Ph.D. in 1955. He was first employed by the U.S. Department of Agriculture at the Smithsonian Institution, as a specialist on immature Coleoptera, and then by  Ohio State University as a faculty member. He came to the Museum as Associate Curator in 1960 and simultaneously was appointed Chairman of the Entomology Department. He held that administrative title until 1972 when he became Deputy Director for Research, the senior administrator responsible for all museum research and field station activities for 15 more years. Must of his research, published in more than 135 research papers, has been involved with the World bee fauna of 20,000 species, with special emphasis on their evolutionary biology, systematics, comparative biology, and immature stages. His fieldwork has been pursued worldwide, with support for foreign investigations provided by Robert G. Goelet, Chairman Emeritus, Board of Trustee, American Museum of Natural History. He is the co-organizer and administrator of the Bee Course, a workshop for biologists who for professional reasons need to know more about the biology and taxonomy of bees, the foremost animal pollinators of terrestrial plants. The course, held annually for the past 12 years and partially funded by the Herbert F. Schwarz Fund and Robert G. Goelet, has been attended by biologist from 29 countries.

 

This year at Jerry’s urging, John S. Ascher, Research Scientists and Manager of the AMNH Bee Databasing Project applied for and was granted an NSF award of 1.4 million dollars in support of  “Collaboraative Research: Collaborative Databasing of North American Bee Collections within a Global Informatics Network,” John S. Ascher, PI, J.G. Rozen, Jr. , Co-PI.  

 

Curatorial Responsibility: Hymenoptera: Apoidea

Curatorial Assistant: Heather Campbell-Melvin