Eli M. Sarnat, PhD University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign Lab Phone: 217-244-6631 Department of Entomology Lab Fax: 217-244-4565 320 Morrill Hall, 505 South Goodwin Avenue Home Phone: 530-601-1465 Urbana, IL 61801 USA Email: [email protected] Skype: ndemik Citizenship: USA Web: http://elisarnat.com
Positions 2013 – present Research Associate, Department of Entomology, University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign Co-PI on USDA grant to continue development of Antkey: a digital tool for the identification and scientific research of the world’s invasive, introduced and commonly intercepted ant species. Dr. Andrew Suarez is co-PI. Project website | http//:www.antkey.org.
2013 – present Research Associate, California Academy of Sciences, San Francisco, CA Curating Antweb.org projects, including Introduced Ants, Port of Entry Ants, Ants of Fiji, Ants of the Solomon Islands. Also working with Dr. Brian Fisher on Ants of Asia: A Guide to the Genera for UC Press.
2010 – 2012 Research Associate, Department of Entomology, University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign Encyclopedia of Life (EOL.org) Rubenstein Fellow. Co-PI on USDA grant to develop and deploy Antkey.org. Dr. Andrew Suarez is co-PI.
Education University of California at Davis (Davis, CA) Ph.D., Entomology, June 2009 (NSF Graduate Research Fellow). Thesis: “The Ants of Fiji: systematics, biogeography and conservation of an island arc fauna.” Major Advisor: Dr. Phil S. Ward. M.S., Entomology, June 2003.
University of California at Berkeley (Berkeley, CA) B.S., Conservation and Resource Studies, Entomology emphasis, May 2000.
Additional Training USDA-CPHST Workshop, Ft. Collins, Colorado. Developing Lucid identification tools (Sept., 2008). California Academy of Sciences Ant Course at Portal, Arizona (July, 2003). Duke University, Organization for Tropical Studies, Costa Rica. (Spring semester, 2003).
Publications Monographs Sarnat EM & EP Economo (2012) The ants of Fiji. University of California Press Publication in Entomology 132: iii-viii; 1-384. [pdf]
Research Publications Economo EP, K Pavel, EM Sarnat, B Guenard, M Weiser, B Lecroq & LL Knowles. Global phylogenetic structure of a hyperdiverse radiation reveals the convergent evolution of macroecological patterns. Proc. R. Soc. B. (In Press). Sarnat EM, Rabeling C, Economo EP, Wilson EO. First record of a species from the New World Pheidole flavens-complex (Hymenoptera: Formicidae) introduced to the southwestern Pacific. Bioinvasions Records, 3: 301-307. [pdf] Clouse RM, M Janda, B Blanchard, P Sharma, BD Hoffman, AN Anderson, JE Czekanski-Moir, P Krushelnycky, C Rabeling, EP Economo, EM Sarnat, CW Ward. 2014. Molecular phylogeny of a widespread ant group reveals waves of dispersal and colonization into and out of the Pacific. Cladistics (Online Early). [pdf] Sarnat EM, Economo EP (2013) Pristomyrmex tsujii sp. n. and P. mandibularis Mann (Hymenoptera, Formicidae) from Fiji. ZooKeys 340: 43-61. [pdf] Sarnat EM, Blanchard, B Guénard, JB Fasi, & EP Economo. 2013. Checklist of the ants (Hymenoptera, Formicidae) of the Solomon Islands and a new survey of Makira Island. Zookeys, 257: 47-88. [pdf] Sarnat EM & AV Suarez (2012) Antkey. University of Illinois and Identification Technology Program, CPHST, PPQ, APHIS, USDA.
Manuscripts submitted Hita Garcia F, EM Sarnat, EP Economo. Proceratium vinaka: a new species of Proceratium Roger (Hymenoptera, Proceratiinae) from Fiji. Submitted. Economo, EP, M Janda & EM Sarnat. The island biogeography of native and exotic ant diversity reveals biotic resistance at large but not small spatial scales. Submitted.
Grants, fellowships & awards Grants & external funding 2014 Kadoorie Farm & Botanical Garden (Hong Kong) | Improving content and language translation of Antkey.org website with respect to invasive ants in Asia | $17,000
2013 USDA-APHIS-MRPBS Cooperative Agreement (CA) | Development of the Antkey.org website. Co-PI with Dr. Andrew Suarez, my role is to design the website and develop all scientific content and illustrations for a Lucid identification key, morphological glossary and species pages for over 100 invasive, introduced and commonly intercepted ants | $97,900
2012 National Science Foundation (NSF) DEB 1141989 | “Evolving hyperdiversity in phenotypic, ecological, and geographic networks: testing the taxon cycle and alternatives in Indo-Pacific Pheidole” Senior personnel with Dr. Evan Economo and Dr. Lacey Knowles, I am responsible for acquisition, curation, identification and classification of hundreds of Pheidole species, specimen database design and management, hypothesis testing and manuscript preparation | $378,522
2010 USDA-APHIS-MRPBS Cooperative Agreement | Development of Antkey.org website. . Co-PI with Dr. Andrew Suarez | $59,180
2007 USDA-APHIS-MRPBS Cooperative Agreement | Development of Identification guide to invasive ants of the Pacific Islands website (www.PIAkey.com) | $21,997
2007 Biosecurity New Zealand Research Grant | $5,000 2007 UC Davis Jastro Shields Research Award | $450 2006 UC Davis Jastro Shields Research Award | $1,250 2005 Pacific Rim Research Program Minigrant | $3,000 2005 Ernst Mayr Grant, Museum of Comparative Zoology, Harvard University | $2,000 2008 UC Davis Graduate Studies NSF GRF matching grant | $25,000) 2003 NSF Graduate Research Fellowship | $75,000 2002 UC Davis McBeth Memorial Scholarship | $1,200 2002 UC Davis Center for Biosystematics Graduate Research Grant | $1,000 2002 UC Davis Jastro Shields Research Award | $2,000 2002 National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship, Honorable mention. 1999 Organization for Tropical Studies, Conservation Biology Fund | $1,000 1999 UC Berkeley Educational Minigrant | $2,500
Fellowships 2011 Encyclopedia of Life Rubenstein Fellowship | One year of funding to support cybertaxonomy work on Antkey.org, Antweb.org and EOL.org
2003 NSF Graduate Research Fellowship | Three years of funding for dissertation work on “The Ants of Fiji: systematics, biogeography and conservation of an island arc fauna.”
Awards 2012 2012 Presidential Award from American Society of Naturalists (Best paper published in The American Naturalist in 2012)
2002 NSF Graduate Research Fellowship, Honorable mention
Scientific meetings Sarnat, EM & EP Economo (2014) The ants of Fiji: systematics, biogeography & ecology of an island arc fauna, International Union for the Study of Social Insects International Congress, Cairns, Australia. (Oral Paper, co-organized Island biology of social insects symposium). Sarnat, EM & EP Economo (2014) Antkey: an online identification guide to invasive, introduced and commonly intercepted ants, International Union for the Study of Social Insects International Congress, Cairns, Australia (Poster). Sarnat, EM (2013) Web-based approaches for the identification of invasive ant species. 2nd International Congress on Biological Invasions, Qingdao, China. (Oral Paper, co-organized Can we keep RIFA out of Asia? symposium). Sarnat, EM (2012) Web-based resources for Pacific Ants. Pacific Ant Summit, Cambridge, Massachusetts, (Oral Paper, meeting co-organizer). Sarnat, EM (2011) Ant identification in cyberspace: tools, applications, and challenges. Entomological Society of America Annual Meeting, Reno, Nevada (Oral Paper). Sarnat, EM (2011) PIAKEY: Interactive Identification Guide to Invasive Ants of the Pacific Islands. Entomological Society of America Pacific Branch Annual Meeting, Waikoloa, Hawaii (Oral Paper). Sarnat, EM (2010) Modern tools for invasive ant identification. International Invasive Ant Management Workshop, Darwin, Australia (Oral Paper). Lucky, A & EM Sarnat (2010) Biogeography and diversification of Pacific island ants. Social Insect Meetings (International Union for the Study of Social Insects), Copenhagen, Denmark (Poster). Encyclopedia of Life/Biodiversity Synthesis Center Workshop: Global Ant Project Synthesis Meeting II. Oral presentation, “Ant ID with Lucid keys” (November 2009, Chicago, IL). Encyclopedia of Life/Biodiversity Synthesis Center Workshop: Melanesian Biogeography. Co-coordinator (August 2009, Suva, Fiji). Lucky, A & EM Sarnat (2009) Biogeography and diversification of the Pacific ant genus Lordomyrma Emery. Entomological Society of America (ESA) Annual Meeting (Oral Paper). Sarnat, EM & CS Moreau (2008) Systematics, biogeography and conservation of the Pheidole roosevelti group [Hymenoptera: Formicidae] in Fiji. Entomological Society of America Meeting, Reno, Nevada (Oral Paper). Sarnat, EM (2007) Making taxonomy fun: an interactive guide to Pacific invasive ants. Entomological Society of Pacific Branch Meeting, Reno, Nevada (Oral Paper). Lucky, A & EM Sarnat (2007) Origins of the Fijian Lordomyrma. Entomological Society of Pacific Branch Meeting, Reno, Nevada (Poster). Sarnat, EM (2007) PIAkey: a tool for identifying Pacific invasive ants. International Pacific Invasive Ant Meeting, Kona, Hawaii (Oral Paper). Sarnat, EM (2007) The ants of Fiji: Systematics, biogeography and conservation of an island arc fauna. Pacific Entomology Conference, Annual Meeting, Honolulu, HI (Oral Paper).
Scientific employment Antwork Consulting, LLC, Founder & Manager. 2012–present. Cybertaxonomy business specializing in physical and digital curation of insect collections, design and maintenance of online biodiversity databases, and the design and deployment of biodiversity websites. Clients include Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology (Japan), University of Florida, Kadoorie Farm & Botanical Garden (Hong Kong), CAB International. Conservation International Rapid Assessment Program (Papua New Guinea), Specimen curator. 2009– 2010, 2013. Harry H. Laidlaw Jr. Honey Bee Research Facility. Research assistant. Supervisor: Susan Cobey. 2008. Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS), Fiji. Expert scientist. Funded by Oceans, Environment, and Science Initiatives (OESI) Program of the United States Embassy (Fiji). 2006–2008. Fiji Terrestrial Arthropod Survey. Field manager. Funded by NSF grant DEB-0425970, coordinated by WCS and the Bishop Museum (Hawaii). Supervisors: Dr. Neal Evenhuis and Dr. David Olson. 2005. National Park Service, Inventory and Monitoring Program, Klamath Network. Program assistant. Supervisor: Daniel Sarr. 2003. Lake Tahoe Biodiversity Project. Contract scientist. Funded by National Forest Service, coordinated by University of Nevada, Reno. 2004. UC Davis Department of Entomology, Research assistant. Supervisor: Dr. Phil Ward. 2001.
Museum collections experience Employment National Museum of Natural History, Washington, D.C., Contract curator. Supervisors: Dr. David Furth and Dr. Ted Schultz (2000). UC Berkeley Essig Museum of Entomology, Assistant to collection manager. Supervisor: Cheryl Barr (1997–2000).
Research Australian National Insect Collection, Canberra, Australia Bernice P. Bishop Museum, Honolulu, Hawaii, USA Bohart Museum of Entomology, UC Davis, Davis, CA, USA British Museum of Natural History, London, United Kingdom California Academy of Sciences, San Francisco, CA, USA Essig Museum of Entomology, UC Berkeley, Berkeley, CA, USA Hungarian Natural History Museum, Budapest, Hungary Los Angeles County Museum of Natural History, Los Angeles, CA, USA Museum of Comparative Zoology, Cambridge, MA, USA Natural History Museum of Geneva, Geneva, Switzerland United States National Museum of Natural History, Washington DC, USA
Digitization 17,889 unique specimen records coded according to Darwin Core standards (overlap among projects) 13,002 specimen records uploaded to Antweb website Pacific Island Ants (Fiji, Solomon Islands, New Guinea, New Caledonia): 12,546 specimens, 705 images Pheidole Ants: 7,139 specimens, 502 images Ports of Entry Ants: 445 specimens, 337 images Digitized vector line drawings: 340 (http://antkey.org/gallery?f[0]=im_field_imaging_technique%3A2). Geocoding: Assisting with the geocoding of over 116,000 verbatim occurrence records assembled by a colleague (Dr. Benoit Guénard) from primary literature. These records are a sample of Guénard’s entire 1.3 million record dataset, which we plan to geocode subsequent to the Pheidole project.
Broader impacts Antkey (http://www.antkey.org) | Designer and administrator (2012–present). Scratchpads Ambassador (http://www.scratchpads.eu) | Scratchpads is an online virtual research environment for biodiversity administered by the British Natural History Museum, London (2012–present). Pacific Invasive Ant Key (PIAkey) (http://itp.lucidcentral.org/id/ant/pia/) designer and administrator (2009– present). Encyclopedia of Life (EOL) Rubenstein Fellow | Integrated data sharing among EOL.org, Antweb.org and Antkey.org (2012). Encyclopedia of Life (EOL) Curator of Formicidae | Contributed to 125 species pages (2011–present). Curator of Introduced Ants on Antweb (http://www.antweb.org/page.do?name=introduced) (2011–present). Curator of Port of Entry Ants on Antweb (http://www.antweb.org/page.do?name=poe) (2011–present). Curator of Port of Solomon Island Ants on Antweb (http://www.antweb.org/page.do?name=solomons) (2012–present). Curator of Port of Fiji Ants on Antweb (http://www.antweb.org/page.do?name=fiji) (2010–present). Teaching experience Classroom & field California Academy of Sciences “Ant Course” Sabah, Borneo (Summer, 2014). Davis Experimental College, Instructor. 559-1, “Backyard Beekeeping” (Spring, 2007). U. C. Davis, Teaching Assistant. ENT/EVE 02, “Biodiversity” (Winter, 2003). U. C. Davis, Teaching Assistant. EVE 101, “Introduction to Ecology” (2002). U. C. Berkeley, Instructor. ESPM 198, “Natural Treasures of the Bay Area” (2000).
Workshops Workshop coordinator. Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) Fire Ant Workshop & Surveillance, Nausori, Fiji (2 July, 2007). Workshop coordinator. WCS Fire Ant Workshop & Surveillance, Suva, Fiji (3 July, 2007). Workshop coordinator. Pacific Invasive Ants Identification Training Workshop, Suva, Fiji (26–28 June, 2007). Workshop coordinator. Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) Fire Ant Workshop & Surveillance, Lautoka, Fiji (15–16 February, 2007).
Mentoring Supervised four work-study undergraduates. University of California, Davis (2006–2009). Supervised five parataxonomists and two USP graduate students in insect and spider collection, curation and identification for the Fiji Arthropod Survey (supported in part by NSF grant DEB-0425790 and the Schlinger Foundation), Colo-i-suva, Fiji.
Organizational participation International Union for the Study of Social Insects, symposium co-organizer (2014) International Congress on Biological Invasion, member of Scientific Committee (2013) Conservation International, member (2007-present) Entomological Society for America, member (2005-present) Union of Concerned Scientists, member (2002-present) Wildlife Conservation Society, member (2004-present) White Oak Farm & Education Center, president (2003-2009), secretary (2010-present) Xerces Society, member (2004-present) Bay Area Ant Meeting, Northern CA (2005-2009) Bay Area Biosystematists (2002-2009) Department of Entomology Committees, UC Davis (2005-2009)
International field experience Permits obtained for Samoa and American Samoa for 2015. Borneo (2014). Three-week collection expedition to Sabah, Malaysia (July, 2014). Fiji (2003–2008). Collected specimens from hundreds of localities across 12 islands, coordinated and lead five expeditions for visiting international scientists, trained and managed Fijian parataxonomists. Solomon Islands (2008). Biodiversity survey of Makira and parts of Guadalcanal. Papua New Guinea (2003). Biodiversity survey of three Provinces. Worked in conjunction with local NGO’s and villages. New Caledonia (2003). Biodiversity survey with several colleagues. Costa Rica (1999). Semester abroad program spent conducting field research experiments and collecting specimens.
Skills Biodiversity informatics, Lucid key development, Scratchpad-2 design and management, scientific illustration, graphic design, website design and management, pest ant identification, beekeeping and queen rearing.