The Western Australian Museum’s Head of Terrestrial Zoology, Dr Mark Harvey, has been recognised for his outstanding service to the international arachnological community with the prestigious Pierre Bonnet Award, presented at the International Society of Arachnology’s (ISA) general meeting in Taiwan last week.

ISA President Charles Griswold cited Dr Harvey’s 220 peer-reviewed publications, WA Museum-hosted ‘Pseudoscorpions of the World’ website, 13 years as subject editor for the Journal of Arachnology, and mentoring of young researchers as some of Dr Harvey’s award-winning qualities.

“Charles also mentioned I was always good for a laugh, which I presumed was a compliment,” Dr Harvey joked today.

“I had absolutely no inkling I was even in the running until they finished listing the winner’s attributes and I realised I fitted the bill - I was completely stunned.”

Dr Harvey is only the third ever recipient of the award and said it was an honour to be recognised alongside the previous winners, with whom he is familiar personally and professionally.

“The 2007 winner, Dr Norman Platnick of the American Museum of Natural History, has been a significant role model to me through his active research program and desire to make arachnids known to a wider audience,” Dr Harvey said.

Despite his international standing, Dr Harvey’s current focus is local research and public engagement projects with his WA Museum colleagues, students and research staff.

“At the moment I’m working on a number of major projects including studies of goblin spiders - tiny six-eyed spiders living in leaf litter and caves – and pseudoscorpions which are tiny arachnids resembling scorpions without a tail,” Dr Harvey said.

“Although we’re conducting some key phylogenetic analyses using molecular data, my research interests mostly focus on documenting the arachnid fauna of WA and, in particular, describing new species we discover.”

The Pierre Bonnet Award was instigated by the International Society of Arachnology in 2007 and named in honour of the French arachnologist who penned Bibliographia Araneorum - a 40-year-in-the-making magnum opus documenting the scientific literature on spiders worldwide.

Media contact:
Niki Comparti
Western Australian Museum
6552 7805, niki.comparti@museum.wa.gov.au