Yeates, David K. 1959–

PERSONAL:

Born December 28, 1959, in Maitland, New South Wales, Australia; son of Victor (a fine artist) and Pamela (a teacher); married Francoise Berlandier (a public servant); children: Aidan and Anastasia. Ethnicity: "Caucasian." Education: University of Queensland, B.Sc. (with honors), 1981; Ph.D., 1988.

ADDRESSES:

Home— Flynn, Australian Capital Territory, Australia. Office— Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization, Division of Entomology, P.O. Box 1700, Canberra, Australian Capital Territory 2601, Australia; fax: 61-2-6246-4264. E-mail— [email protected]; [email protected].

CAREER:

Biologist and dipterologist. American Museum of Natural History, New York, NY, Roosevelt postdoctoral fellow, 1990-92; University of Queensland, Brisbane, Queensland, Australia, senior lecturer, 1994-2000; Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization, Division of Entomology, Canberra, Australian Capital Territory, Australia, research scientist, 2000-04, Schlinger Foundation fellow and senior principal research scientist, 2004—. Head of the Australian National Insect Collection.

MEMBER:

Entomological Society of Queensland (president, 1998), Council of the Congresses of Dipterology (chair, 1998-2000), Australian Diversitas Committee (chair, 2005), Australian Entomological Society, Society of Systematic Biologists, Willi Henning Society.

AWARDS, HONORS:

Commendation, Zoological Society of New South Wales, 2007, for On the Fly.

WRITINGS:

(Editor, with Brian M. Wiegmann)The Evolutionary Biology of Flies, Columbia University Press (New York, NY), 2005.

Created the CD-ROM On the Fly, Australian Biological Resources Study (Canberra, Australian Capital Territory, Australia), 2006. Contributor to numerous anthologies and scholarly books.Contributor to periodicals, including Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the USA, Invertebrate Systematics, New Phytologist, Systematic Entomology, Annual Review of Entomology, Zootaxa, Biotechniques, Insect Behavior, Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution, Systematic Biology, Quarterly Review of Biology, Myrmecia, Proceedings of the Royal Society of South Australia, Entomologische Abhandlungen, Cladistics, Nature, Biologue, Zoologica Scripta, Organisms Diversity and Evolution, Evolution, Annals of the Entomological Society of America, Invertebrate Taxonomy, International Journal of Insect Morphology and Embryology, Annual Review of Entomology, Proceedings of the Royal Society of Queensland, News Bulletin of the Entomological Society of Queensland, Nature Australia, Electrophoresis, Weed Technology, Biological Journal of the Linnean Society, Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society, Journal of Natural History, Annals of the Natal Museum, Bulletin of the American Museum of Natural History, American Museum Novitates, Journal of Economic Entomology, Australian Entomological Magazine, Naturalist News, Pan-Pacific Entomologist, Queensland Naturalist, and Australian Journal of Entomology. Editorial board member,Invertebrate Systematics, Organisms Diversity and Evolution, and Zoolgischer Anzeiger.

SIDELIGHTS:

David K. Yeates is an Australian biologist and dipterologist, or scientist who studies diptera, an order of insects that includes flies, mosquitos, midges, and gnats. He has held a number of positions in professional and academic organizations. In 1998 he was president of the Entomological Society of Queensland. From 1998 until 2000 he served as chair of the Council of the Congresses of Dipterology. In 2005 he chaired the Australian Coordinating Group of Diversitas, an international organization that facilitates research collaboration between universities on the conservation and sustainable use of biodiversity. Yeates has also been a member of the Australian Entomological Society, the Society of Systematic Biologists, and the Willi Henning Society. He serves on the editorial boards of several academic journals, including Invertebrate Systematics, Organisms Diversity and Evolution, and Zoolgischer Anzeiger.

Yeates contributes several articles each year to academic journals and scholarly periodicals. He also contributes chapters and essays to numerous books. In 2005 he coedited The Evolutionary Biology of Flies with Brian M. Wiegmann. The volume outlines how research with flies has been crucial to the twentieth century's advances in the fields of molecular evolution, physiology, genetics, phylogenetics (the study of the evolution of a race or group of organisms), and ecology. In 2006 Yeates published a CD-ROM through the Australian Biological Resources Study called On the Fly. The work, an interactive guide to flies of Australia, earned a commendation from the Zoological Society of New South Wales in 2007.

David K. Yeates told CA: "My motivation as a writer is to get the results of the research out to a particular audience, which may be scientific peers or the general public. Early in my career writing was a painful, solitary process, but I now write most often as part of a large or small collaborative team. I am inspired by the beauty, complexity, and importance of insects to man and the biosphere. I am particularly interested in the impact of phylogenetic understanding on other branches of biology, hence my work on the book The Evolutionary Biology of Flies. I write in numerous different media and have recently developed an interactive guide and key to the Australian fly Diptera families published on CD-ROM."

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

Journal of Heredity, September 1, 2006, Christopher Wills, review of The Evolutionary Biology of Flies, p. 538.

Quarterly Review of Biology, March, 2006, John True, review of The Evolutionary Biology of Flies, p. 69.

Science, August 19, 2005, review of The Evolutionary Biology of Flies, p. 1189.

Science Books & Films, November 1, 2005, Donald A. Windsor, review of The Evolutionary Biology of Flies, p. 249.

ONLINE

Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization Web site,http://www.csiro.au/ (November 29, 2007), profile of David K. Yeates.

University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Therevid PEET Program Web site,http://www.inhs.uiuc.edu/ (November 29, 2007), profile of David K. Yeates.