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Lauren Esposito

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Lauren Esposito
Alma materUniversity of Texas at El Paso
CUNY Graduate Center
Known forScorpion research
Scientific career
InstitutionsUniversity of California, Berkeley
California Academy of Sciences

Lauren Esposito is the assistant curator and Schlinger chair of Arachnology at the California Academy of Sciences. She is the co-founder of the network 500 Queer Scientists.

Early life and education

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Esposito was born and raised in El Paso, Texas.[1] She kept a collection of insects in egg cartons, and her first grade science project looked at the Mendelian genetics of pigeon colours.[1] Esposito earned her bachelor's degree in biology at the University of Texas at El Paso in 2003.[2] She became interested in scorpions during a National Science Foundation placement at the American Museum of Natural History.[1] She moved to New York for her graduate studies.[2] She completed her PhD at the CUNY Graduate Center and the American Museum of Natural History (Scorpion Systematics Research Lab) in 2011.[3] Her dissertation, "Systematics and Biogeography of the New World Scorpion Genus Centruroides Marx, 1890", considered Buthidae scorpions.[4]

Research and career

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Esposito teaching on the island of Saba

In 2011 she joined University of California, Berkeley as a postdoctoral researcher working on Caribbean scorpions.[1][5] She studied the biogeography of arachnids.[6] She joined the California Academy of Sciences in 2015, and is one of the world's only women scorpion experts.[7][8][9] She continued to study Buthidae scorpions at the California Academy of Sciences.[10][11] She digitises and collects genetic information from the collected scorpion species.[7] She is also working on arthropods in salt flats in western America.[12] Her current research considers the evolution of scorpion venom and distribution of scorpions in the Caribbean.[8] She has also studied the uses of scorpion venom in the context of cancer research and medication.[13] In 2017 she discovered three new species and two new genera of club-tailed scorpions,[14][15][16][17] detecting the scorpions using ultraviolet lights that excite a fluorescent dye in the scorpion armour.[3][18] The new species were of the genus Rhopalurus.[16] Whilst surveying the Penang Hill rainforest in Malaysia, Esposito identified a new ghost scorpion.[19][20] In 2018 she identified that Centruroidinae scorpions hiss by rubbing themselves with comb like structures.[21][22] She told Slate magazine that her favourite fact about scorpions was that they behave like mammals and bear live young.[23][24]

In 2014, Esposito co-founded of Islands & Seas, a non-profit that supports scientific research and education at its field station in Baja California Sur, Mexico.[10][25][26][27] She leads educational programs in Baja California and at Columbia University.[28] She is the creator of 500 Queer Scientists, a network of LGBTQ+ scientists worldwide.[29][30][31][32][33] She created 500 Queer Scientists after a survey of American STEM workers identified that over 40% of LGBTQ+ scientists were not 'out' to their colleagues.[34][35] She has appeared on Science Friday and Public Radio International.[36][37] In February 2019 she was awarded the Walt Westman Award by the National Organization of Gay and Lesbian Scientists and Technical Professionals (NOGLSTP) as recognition for the 500 Queer Scientists initiative.[38] It is the highest national honor that NOGLSTP can award to a member, recognizing that individual's commitment to their mission.[39]

References

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  1. ^ a b c d "Course Instructor: Lauren Esposito". AMNH. Archived from the original on 2018-09-02. Retrieved 2018-09-01.
  2. ^ a b "2018 SACNAS - The National Diversity in STEM Conference". Cvent. Archived from the original on 2018-09-02. Retrieved 2018-09-01.
  3. ^ a b "Three New "Club-tailed" Scorpions Identified". AMNH. 2017-04-07. Retrieved 2018-09-01.
  4. ^ "Esposito, Lauren A." www.gc.cuny.edu. Retrieved 2018-09-01.
  5. ^ "Biodiversity Dynamics on Islands". nature.berkeley.edu. Retrieved 2018-09-01.
  6. ^ "Lauren Esposito | California Academy of Sciences". California Academy of Sciences. Retrieved 2018-09-01.
  7. ^ a b "World's only female scorpion expert on lookout for new species". SFChronicle.com. 2015-12-26. Retrieved 2018-09-01.
  8. ^ a b "Lauren Esposito". California Academy of Sciences. Retrieved 2018-09-01.
  9. ^ Chronicle, San Francisco (2015-09-25), New curator of Arachnology at the California Academy of Sciences, retrieved 2018-09-01
  10. ^ a b California Academy of Sciences (2018-02-07), The Anomalies: Venom Race | California Academy of Sciences, retrieved 2018-09-01
  11. ^ A., Esposito, Lauren; Y., Yamaguti, Humberto; Ricardo, Pinto-da-Rocha; Lorenzo, Prendini (2018). "Plucking with the plectrum: phylogeny of the New World buthid scorpion subfamily Centruroidinae Kraus, 1955 (Scorpiones: Buthidae) reveals evolution of three pecten-sternite stridulation organs". Arthropod Systematics & Phylogeny (in Portuguese). 76 (1): 87–122. doi:10.3897/asp.76.e31942. ISSN 1863-7221.{{cite journal}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  12. ^ "The Scorpion Queen - Lauren Esposito". Untamed Science. Retrieved 2018-09-01.
  13. ^ Fimrite, Peter (November 26, 2018). "Bay Area scientist stung by public's perception of scorpions as scary scourge". The San Francisco Chronicle.
  14. ^ Gorman, James (4 August 2017). "Scorpions Are Ancient, but Some Species Are New to Science". The New York Times. Retrieved 2018-09-01.
  15. ^ "Arachnologists Discover Three New Species of Club-Tailed Scorpions | Biology | Sci-News.com". Breaking Science News | Sci-News.com. Retrieved 2018-09-01.
  16. ^ a b A., Esposito, Lauren; Y., Yamaguti, Humberto; A., Souza, Cláudio; Ricardo., Pinto-da-Rocha; Lorenzo., Prendini (2017-06-26). "Systematic revision of the neotropical club-tailed scorpions, Physoctonus, Rhopalurus, and Troglorhopalurus, revalidation of Heteroctenus, and descriptions of two new genera and three new species (Buthidae, Rhopalurusinae). (Bulletin of the American Museum of Natural History, no. 415)". hdl:2246/6723. {{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires |journal= (help)CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  17. ^ "Three new 'club-tailed' scorpions join the tree of life". EurekAlert!. Retrieved 2018-09-01.
  18. ^ "Scorpions of the Bay Area - The Kid Should See This". thekidshouldseethis.com. 2017-11-09. Retrieved 2018-09-01.
  19. ^ "New 'ghost' scorpion among several species recorded for the first time in Malaysian rainforest". news.mongabay.com. 2018-01-04. Retrieved 2018-09-01.
  20. ^ "New species discovered in Malaysian rainforest during unprecedented survey". CanopyMeg - Official Website of Dr. Meg Lowman. Retrieved 2018-09-01.
  21. ^ "In Brief | New Scientist". New Scientist. Retrieved 2018-09-01.
  22. ^ "Some scorpions can hiss by rubbing themselves with 'sandpaper'". New Scientist. Retrieved 2018-09-01.
  23. ^ Casey, Constance (2017-08-14). "Scorpions Have Been Maligned in the Trump Era". Slate. ISSN 1091-2339. Retrieved 2018-09-01.
  24. ^ "5 Animals That Carry Babies On Their Backs". 2017-03-11. Archived from the original on March 11, 2017. Retrieved 2018-09-01.
  25. ^ "Lauren Esposito x Charles Darwin". Lauren Tabak. Archived from the original on 2021-05-01. Retrieved 2018-09-01.
  26. ^ "islands-seas | About". islands-seas. Retrieved 2018-09-01.
  27. ^ "Sea & Learn on Saba 2016: "Saba After Dark" with Lauren Esposito and Eric Stiner". Vimeo. Retrieved 2018-09-01.
  28. ^ "sea-and-learn-saba | Lauren Esposito". sea-and-learn-saba. Retrieved 2018-09-01.
  29. ^ "Visibility matters: A conversation with the co-founder of 500 Queer Scientists". Science | AAAS. 2018-06-26. Retrieved 2018-09-01.
  30. ^ "500 Queer Scientists | Stories". 500 Queer Scientists | Stories. Retrieved 2018-09-01.
  31. ^ "Coming Out of the Shadows". 500 Women Scientists. Retrieved 2018-09-01.
  32. ^ Stanislawski, Eliana (2018-06-21). "We're Here, We're Queer, and We Have a Place in Science". Medium. Retrieved 2018-09-01.
  33. ^ "INTO: A Digital Magazine for The Modern Queer World". www.intomore.com. 15 June 2018. Retrieved 2018-09-01.
  34. ^ Yoder, Jeremy B.; Mattheis, Allison (2015-08-04). "Queer in STEM: Workplace Experiences Reported in a National Survey of LGBTQA Individuals in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics Careers". Journal of Homosexuality. 63 (1): 1–27. doi:10.1080/00918369.2015.1078632. ISSN 0091-8369. PMID 26241115. S2CID 4514344.
  35. ^ "They're here. They're queer. They're scientists". Mother Jones. Retrieved 2018-09-01.
  36. ^ "Spider Stories That'll Stick With You - Science Friday". Science Friday. Retrieved 2018-09-01.
  37. ^ "Six things you believe about spiders that are totally false". Public Radio International. Retrieved 2018-09-01.
  38. ^ "2019-02-04: NOGLSTP Recognizes Chan, Morales, and Freeman as LGBTQ+ Educator, Engineer, and Scientist of the Year for 2019, Esposito is Walt Westman Awardee – NOGLSTP". Retrieved 2019-02-07.
  39. ^ Mendez, Kelly (March 14, 2019). "Dr. Lauren Esposito honored for 500 Queer Scientists campaign". California Academy of Sciences.
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