Background
George Poinar Jr. was born on April 25, 1936, in Spokane, Washington, United States. When he was three years old, his family moved to Ohio, where his father worked as a musician and a Bach scholar at Baldwin Wallace College.
Cornell University College of Agriculture and Life Sciences, Ithaca, New York, United States
George received three degrees from Cornell University College of Agriculture and Life Sciences, including a Bachelor of Science degree in 1958, a Master of Science degree in 1960 and a Doctor of Philosophy degree in Biology in 1962.
Cornell University College of Agriculture and Life Sciences, Ithaca, New York, United States
George received three degrees from Cornell University College of Agriculture and Life Sciences, including a Bachelor of Science degree in 1958, a Master of Science degree in 1960 and a Doctor of Philosophy degree in Biology in 1962.
Corvallis, Oregon, United States
George Poinar Jr. (left) and Hendrik Poinar, his son, whose work helped make de-extinction possible, sit in George's home laboratory in Corvallis, Oregon, where George studies specimens from his collection of amber-encased insects.
(This manual was prepared for the diagnosis of insect dise...)
This manual was prepared for the diagnosis of insect diseases, caused by infectious agents.
https://www.amazon.com/Diagnostic-manual-identification-insect-pathogens/dp/030631097X/?tag=2022091-20
1978
(After the publication of the "Diagnostic Manual for the I...)
After the publication of the "Diagnostic Manual for the Identification of Insect Pathogens", the authors received many queries, asking why they had not included the larger metazoan parasites, as well as the microbial forms. An examination of the literature indicated, that pictorial guides to the identification of nematodes and the immature stages of insect parasites were unavailable. Consequently, the sections, covering insect pathogens were rewritten and combined with new sections on ento mogenous nematodes and the immature stages of insect parasites. The result is the present laboratory guide, which is unique in covering all types of biotic agents, which are found inside insects and cause them injury or disease.
https://www.amazon.com/Laboratory-Guide-Insect-Pathogens-Parasites/dp/0306416808/?tag=2022091-20
1984
(Amber is a semi-precious gem, that is formed over eons by...)
Amber is a semi-precious gem, that is formed over eons by natural forces out of the resin of trees. This book is a compendium of all that people know about life found in amber. It surveys all life forms, from microbes to vertebrates and plants, that have been reported from amber deposits throughout the world, beginning with the earliest pieces, dating from some 300 million years ago. It also describes the formation of amber and the location, geological history and early exploration of the major world amber deposits, including those still being worked today. The book also provides practical information on how to determine fake amber, containing present-day forms of life.
https://www.amazon.com/Life-Amber-George-Poinar-Jr/dp/0804720010
1992
(This work discusses Roberta Poinar's and George Poinar's ...)
This work discusses Roberta Poinar's and George Poinar's work with amber and their successes in extracting 100 million-year-old DNA samples.
https://www.amazon.com/Quest-Life-Amber-Discovery-Fossil-dp-0201626608/dp/0201626608/?tag=2022091-20
1994
(In "Jurassic Park", amber fossils provided the key to bri...)
In "Jurassic Park", amber fossils provided the key to bringing dinosaurs back to life. Scientists in the movie extracted dinosaur blood from mosquitoes, preserved for millions of years in amber-hardened tree resin and used the blood's DNA to revive the creatures, that terrified audiences around the globe. In this book, George and Roberta Poinar use amber for a similar act of revival - only they bring back an entire ecosystem.
https://www.amazon.com/Amber-Forest-Reconstruction-Vanished-World-dp-0691028885/dp/0691028885/?tag=2022091-20
1999
(This extensively illustrated book, the first major review...)
This extensively illustrated book, the first major review of Lebanese amber, covers all aspects of the highly valued resin, including its origin and its role as a commodity in ancient cultures. Paleontologists, biologists and evolutionists will appreciate the book's new information, along with its summary of early research and its analysis of what amber fossils reveal about insect diversification, biogeography, extinction and survival.
https://www.amazon.com/Lebanese-Amber-Oldest-Ecosystem-Fossilized/dp/087071533X
2001
(A scientific adventure story from the authors, whose rese...)
A scientific adventure story from the authors, whose research inspired "Jurassic Park", "What Bugged the Dinosaurs?" offers compelling evidence of how insects directly and indirectly contributed to the dinosaurs' demise.
https://www.amazon.com/What-Bugged-Dinosaurs-Insects-Cretaceous/dp/0691124310
2008
George Poinar Jr. was born on April 25, 1936, in Spokane, Washington, United States. When he was three years old, his family moved to Ohio, where his father worked as a musician and a Bach scholar at Baldwin Wallace College.
George practiced the piano and violin from an early age, but over time, his interests moved in the direction of natural history instead. He grew particularly fond of bird watching during high school. Poinar's waning interest in music engendered family tensions, and as a result, during his high school years, he spent two summers in Iowa, working on a farm.
Poinar's farm experiences prepared him well for his undergraduate experience at Cornell University's Agricultural School - Cornell University College of Agriculture and Life Sciences, where he initially studied ornithology. After his first year, Poinar was encouraged by a professor of ornithology to explore other fields, that promised stronger job opportunities. As such, Poinar ventured into botany and landed a summer job, studying the effects of insects on various species of plants. His research on insect hosts led to a graduate assistantship in Cornell's Entomology Department, where he researched a parasite of the alfalfa weevil, that was impacting pastures in the Hudson Valley. George received three degrees from Cornell University College of Agriculture and Life Sciences, including a Bachelor of Science degree in 1958, a Master of Science degree in 1960 and a Doctor of Philosophy degree in Biology in 1962.
Seeking further knowledge and experience in nematology, Poinar traveled to England and studied with some of the leading experts in the field at the Rothamsted Experimental Station (present-day Rothamsted Research). He likewise visited researchers in Paris, Wageningen and St. Petersburg during this time. Importantly, while on this trip, Poinar also collected his first piece of amber.
In 1962, George was made a member of the Faculty of Biology at the University of California, Riverside, where he remained till 1963. In 1964, he joined the Department of Entomology, Division of Insect Pathology at the University of California, Berkeley, where he began studying insects, affecting nutgrass, and where he researched till 1995. Over the next few years, Poinar's research focus shifted from the insects, affecting humans, to the parasites and pathogens, affecting insects. During his early years at Berkeley, Poinar also headed the school's Insect Disease Diagnostic Service, helping to identify pathogens, affecting medically and agriculturally important insects.
After a lack of funding led to the closure of the Diagnostic Service, Poinar was invited to travel overseas and study the impact of nematodes on the fertility of rhinoceros beetles, which harmed coconuts and were considered a pest insect. As he studied this problem, Poinar traveled around the tropics, visiting Western Samoa, New Caledonia, Northern Australia, Thailand, Malaysia and Borneo. During the trip, which was funded by the World Health, Food and Drug Organization, Poinar also kept an eye out for cowry trees, a species, whose resin turns to amber over time, and amidst his explorations, he began to accumulate a growing collection of dried resin samples.
In 1969, Poinar left for present-day Saint Petersburg, where he was involved in work at the Soviet Academy of Sciences. While in the USSR, he also examined collections of Baltic amber, that were kept at local museums. Later, Poinar was invited to travel through Africa to investigate nematode parasites in medically important insects. His research was funded by the World Health Organization as well and was focused on black flies, tsetse flies and mosquitoes.
After finishing his work in Africa, Poinar began his first amber studies at the University of California, Berkeley. Initially, he viewed the work as a side project and a good opportunity to collaborate with his wife, Roberta, an electron microscopist at Berkeley. The couple made their first breakthrough when, in examining a piece of Baltic amber, they discovered an ancient fly, that retained recognizable cells and nuclei in its abdomen. Thus began the Poinars' period of intense focus on studies of extinct DNA.
In 1975, Poinar was asked by colleagues at Berkeley to identify nematodes, encased in Mexican amber. He took an immediate interest and ultimately chose to study and describe the nematodes further, eventually traveling to Chiapas to collect his own Mexican amber specimens. Indeed, over the years, Poinar has traveled around the world to collect amber, visiting Poland, Morocco and the Dominican Republic among other locations.
It was in 1992, that George, his wife Roberta and their son Hendrik, an evolutionary biologist, specializing in ancient DNA, successfully extracted insect DNA from a Lebanese weevil in amber, that was 125 million years old. Later, in 1995, George left for Oregon, where, with his wife, he opened the Amber Institute. In addition, in 1995, Poinar got hired as a courtesy faculty member in the Department of Entomology at Oregon State University. From that time, Poinar has collaborated productively with a number of scientists from Oregon State University.
It was in 2016, that George made a declaration about the discovery of a new plant species, named Strychnos electri, that's a 45-million-year-old relative of coffee he found in amber. In 2017, Poinar published a paper, describing a fossilized flower and its tentative pollinator. The work describes a flower of an ancestral milkweed plant, named Discoflorus neotropicus, and a termite, carrying a pollinium, all covered in Dominican amber.
During his lifetime, George has authored and co-authored a number of books, documenting his work in paleoentomology. His works include "Entomogenous Nematodes" (1975), "Diagnostic Manual for the Identification of Insect Pathogens" (1978), "Nematodes for Biological Control of Insects" (1979), "Life in Amber" (1992), "The Quest For Life In Amber" (1994), "Discovering the Mysteries of Amber" (1995), "Lebanese Amber: The Oldest Insect Ecosystem in Fossilized Resin" (2001) and others.
These days, Poinar continues exploring ancient insects and their parasites as preserved in amber. He also researches in Oregon State University's arthropod collection and studies insects native to the Oregon dunes.
(After the publication of the "Diagnostic Manual for the I...)
1984(A scientific adventure story from the authors, whose rese...)
2008(This extensively illustrated book, the first major review...)
2001(This work discusses Roberta Poinar's and George Poinar's ...)
1994(Amber is a semi-precious gem, that is formed over eons by...)
1992(This manual was prepared for the diagnosis of insect dise...)
1978(In "Jurassic Park", amber fossils provided the key to bri...)
1999Quotations: "My studies on amber were begun late in my career. They were driven by a remembrance of the book "Dragons in Amber" by Wille Ley, that my mother read to me, when I was quite young. The drawing of a weevil in a piece of Baltic amber on the front page of that book was indelibly imprinted in my mind and I resolved even back then, that someday I would find my own weevil in a piece of amber (and now I have). I was fortunate to have received a broad training in biology at a time, when many of the university professors were excellent naturalists and quite inspirational. This background was indispensable for me in identifying the broad range of inclusions, that occur in amber."
George married Roberta Poinar, an electron microscopist and author, in April, 1984. Their marriage produced five children - Gina Poinar Dailey, Tam Poinar Hess, Hendrik Poinar, Maya Dawson and Gregory Poinar.