Thomas Chadbourne Emmel was an American population biologist. He was noted as a conservationist, naturalist and prolific author.
Background
Thomas Chadbourne Emmel was born on May 8, 1941, in Inglewood, California, United States. He was the son of Edward Fred and Ardyce (Burger) Emmel.
Tom's parents met on an outing sponsored by the Sierra Club and encouraged an interest in nature, including taking Tom and his brother on many camping trips to all the national parks in the western U.S. Around age eight, at the suggestion of his father, Tom, then younger brother John, began collecting butterflies on all their family trips. This began a lifelong passion they shared.
Their mother further encouraged their interest by driving them to entomological society meetings at Los Angeles County Museum of Natural History. His parents, a den mother and scout master, respectively, were very much involved with the scouting program, and the brothers were Cub Scouts, Boy Scouts, and Explorer Scouts, and became Eagle Scouts as well.
Education
When Tom was a high school senior, he was one of 40 winners of the Westinghouse Science Talent Search, for which he won a trip to Washington, D.C. Upon graduating from high school, Tom went with ornithologist L. Irby Davis, for a three-month trip to southern Mexico. Tom assisted Mr. Davis in recording bird songs in the early morning and evening, then collected butterflies during the mid-day. He returned to southern California with several thousand specimens - and his lifetime interest in tropical entomology was secured.
In 1963, Emmel received a Bachelor of Arts from Reed College and a Ph.D. from Stanford University in 1967.
Career
From 1965 to 1966, Emmel was a lecturer in entomology at San Jose State University in San Jose, California, and from 1967 to 1969, he was a course coordinator at Organization for Tropical Studies, Incorporation in Costa Rica as well as a professor of tropical biology at University of Costa Rica in San Jose. His unbridled commitment to and support of the University of Florida began in 1968 when he joined its faculty as Assistant Professor of Biological Sciences & Zoology. In 1973, he became an Associate Professor of Zoology and three years later, in 1976, he became a Professor of Zoology. He served as department chairman for Zoology, directed the Department of Zoology Division of Lepidoptera Research from 1980-2003, and directed the UF Boender Endangered Species Laboratory since its inception in 1995.
In 2004, Tom was chosen to be the Founding Director of the Florida Museum's McGuire Center for Lepidoptera and Biodiversity at the University of Florida. Under Dr. Emmel's leadership, The McGuire Center for Lepidoptera and Biodiversity has become world-renowned for research on biodiversity, habitat loss, and Lepidoptera; a major publisher of related scientific studies; a force in public education about our environment and its biodiversity; and the repository for the largest collection of Lepidoptera specimens in the world.
Emmel's many personal research interests included the endangered Schaus Swallowtail population in the Florida Keys; the effects of mosquito control pesticides on non-target wildlife and humans living in south Florida; micro-evolution, population biology, and ecological genetics of Cercyonis butterflies; chromosome evolution and macro-evolution in the Lepidoptera; mimicry complexes in Mechanitis and Melinaea ithomiine butterflies in the Neotropics; biology, life histories, ecology, and conservation of the California butterfly fauna; fossil butterflies; and butterfly diversity in many areas of the world.
Views
Thomas Emmel worked tirelessly to encourage efforts to promote conservation and natural habitat preservation, such as through the Miami Blue-Save Wild Florida license plate initiative and conservation biology efforts for the overwintering Monarch butterfly sites in southern Mexico.
Membership
Emmel was a member of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, Society for the Study of Evolution, Association of Tropical Biology, Ecological Society of America, Lepidopterists Society and Royal Entomological Society as well.
Personality
Tom was known for his kindness, humor, encyclopedic knowledge and wide-ranging interests. He epitomized the ideal of the professor as educator, mentor, supporter and inspiration.
Throughout his lifetime, Tom mentored countless students - fostering and encouraging their careers in entomology, taxonomy, the study of tropical rainforests, and conservation biology.
