Photo: David Gilbar
Congratulations to Ildiko Szabo, Assistant Curator of the Cowan Tetrapod Collection at the Beaty Biodiversity Museum, for becoming a member of the American Ornithology Union (AOU) Committee for Bird Collections. The AOU was founded in 1883 and is the oldest and largest North American society for the scientific study of birds. This AOU sub-committee represents both traditional and non-traditional collections, including skins, skeletons, fluid-preserved material, eggs and nests, genetic resources, and sound or video holdings.
The excellence of Szabo’s Working with Birds webpage, which is hosted by the Beaty Biodiversity Museum website and used as a teaching tool by many universities and colleges, as well as the workshop she convened at the museum are what earned her the nomination to this prestige’s committee.
Held as part of the Fifth North American Ornithological Conference (NAOC-V), Szabo’s Using and Contributing to Avian Collections Workshop featured an international roster of speakers discussing the changing uses of avian collections and demonstrates techniques to prepare and preserve specimens.
“I want to express my gratitude for Darren’s support of both these concepts and the technical assistance of Derek. I also want to thank the team who is developing the new Beaty website for understanding the importance of the webpage project.”
Note: Dr. Darren Irwin is the Curator of the Cowan Tetrapod Collection, and Derek Tan is the Digital Media Specialist of the Beaty Biodiversity Museum.
Szabo will be working closely with her fellow committee members on a variety of issues and the importance of collecting voucher specimens. The Committee is also involved in specific projects relating to biodiversity informatics and collection surveys. All of these efforts are intended to benefit the scientific museum community in ornithology (curators, collection managers, researchers).