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Michael S. Engel, FLS, FRES (born September 24, 1971) is an American
paleontologist Paleontology (), also spelled palaeontology or palæontology, is the scientific study of life that existed prior to, and sometimes including, the start of the Holocene epoch (roughly 11,700 years before present). It includes the study of fossi ...
and
entomologist Entomology () is the scientific study of insects, a branch of zoology. In the past the term "insect" was less specific, and historically the definition of entomology would also include the study of animals in other arthropod groups, such as ara ...
, notable for contributions to insect evolutionary biology and classification. In connection with his studies he has undertaken field expeditions in
Central Asia Central Asia, also known as Middle Asia, is a region of Asia that stretches from the Caspian Sea in the west to western China and Mongolia in the east, and from Afghanistan and Iran in the south to Russia in the north. It includes the fo ...
,
Asia Minor Anatolia, tr, Anadolu Yarımadası), and the Anatolian plateau, also known as Asia Minor, is a large peninsula in Western Asia and the westernmost protrusion of the Asian continent. It constitutes the major part of modern-day Turkey. The re ...
, the
Levant The Levant () is an approximate historical geographical term referring to a large area in the Eastern Mediterranean region of Western Asia. In its narrowest sense, which is in use today in archaeology and other cultural contexts, it is ...
,
Arabia The Arabian Peninsula, (; ar, شِبْهُ الْجَزِيرَةِ الْعَرَبِيَّة, , "Arabian Peninsula" or , , "Island of the Arabs") or Arabia, is a peninsula of Western Asia, situated northeast of Africa on the Arabian Pl ...
, eastern Africa, the high Arctic, and South and North America, and has published more than 983 papers in
scientific journal In academic publishing, a scientific journal is a periodical publication intended to further the progress of science, usually by reporting new research. Content Articles in scientific journals are mostly written by active scientists such ...
s and over 925 new living and fossil species. Some of Engel's research images were included in exhibitions on the aesthetic value of scientific imagery.


Career

Engel received a B.Sc. in physiology and cell biology and a B.A. in chemistry from the
University of Kansas The University of Kansas (KU) is a public research university with its main campus in Lawrence, Kansas, United States, and several satellite campuses, research and educational centers, medical centers, and classes across the state of Kansas. T ...
in 1993, and a Ph.D. in entomology from Cornell University in 1998. He was employed as a research scientist at the
American Museum of Natural History The American Museum of Natural History (abbreviated as AMNH) is a natural history museum on the Upper West Side of Manhattan in New York City. In Theodore Roosevelt Park, across the street from Central Park, the museum complex comprises 26 int ...
from 1998–2000, and then returned to the University of Kansas as assistant professor in the Department of Entomology, assistant professor in the Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, and assistant curator in the Natural History Museum’s Division of Entomology. He was promoted to full professor and senior curator in 2008, and University Distinguished Professor in 2018. In 2006–2007 Engel resumed regular activity in the American Museum of Natural History while a
Guggenheim Fellow Guggenheim Fellowships are grants that have been awarded annually since by the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation to those "who have demonstrated exceptional capacity for productive scholarship or exceptional creative ability in the ar ...
, completing work on the geological history of termites and their influence on carbon recycling in paleoenvironments. This period also permitted significant work on the comprehensive work, ''Treatise on the Termites of the World''. In 2008 he received the
Charles Schuchert Award The Charles Schuchert Award is presented by the Paleontological Society to a person under 40 whose work reflects excellence and promise in the science of paleontology. The award was made in honor of Charles Schuchert (1858 – 1942), an American ...
of the
Paleontological Society The Paleontological Society, formerly the Paleontological Society of America, is an international organisation devoted to the promotion of paleontology. The Society was founded in 1908 in Baltimore, Maryland, and was incorporated in April 1968 in ...
and subsequently the Bicentenary Medal of the
Linnean Society of London The Linnean Society of London is a learned society dedicated to the study and dissemination of information concerning natural history, evolution, and taxonomy. It possesses several important biological specimen, manuscript and literature coll ...
(2009) for his contributions to the fields of systematic entomology and paleontology. In Spring 2014 he was awarded the Scholarly Achievement Award of the University of Kansas for his contributions to the evolutionary and developmental origins of insect flight; and in 2015 the International Cooperation Award from the Chinese Academy of Sciences. In 2017, Engel was elected as a Fellow of the
Entomological Society of America The Entomological Society of America (ESA) was founded in 1889 and today has more than 7,000 members, including educators, extension personnel, consultants, students, researchers, and scientists from agricultural departments, health agencies, ...
and received the society's Thomas Say Award. In Spring 2019, ''Innumerable Insects'' won a Silver Award in the Nautilus Book Award.


Personal life

Engel married Kellie K. Magill on April 25, 2009, in a ceremony performed by Engel's father.


Eponymy

The following species or genera have been proposed in honor of Dr. Engel, ( denotes extinct taxa): # ''Lasioglossum (Dialictus) engeli'' Genaro, 2001 (a halictine bee from Cuba) # ''Braunsapis engeli'' Jobiraj, 2004 (a small allodapine bee from southern India) # ''Cretostylops engeli'' Grimaldi & Kathirithamby, 2005 (the oldest fossil Strepsiptera, from Myanmar) # † ''Sigmophlebia engeli'' Béthoux & Beckemeyer, 2007 (a protorthopteran from the
Early Permian 01 or '01 may refer to: * The year 2001, or any year ending with 01 * The month of January * 1 (number) Music * 01'' (Richard Müller album), 2001 * ''01'' (Son of Dave album), 2000 * ''01'' (Urban Zakapa album), 2011 * ''O1'' (Hiroyuki Sawan ...
of Oklahoma) # ''Triepeolus engeli'' Rightmyer, 2008 (an epeoline bee from Texas) # † ''Archaeoellipes engeli'' Heads, 2010 (a pygmy mole cricket from the Early Miocene of the Dominican Republic) # ''Anotylus engeli'' Makranczy, 2011 (an oxyteline rove beetle from Bolivia) # † ''Engellestes'' Nel ''& al.'', 2012 (a genus of damselfly-like odonates from the Permian of Russia) # ''Melitta engeli'' Michez, 2012 (a melittine bee from Kyrgyzstan) # † ''Xenosycorax engeli'' Azar & Salamé, 2015 (a psychodid fly in Cretaceous amber from New Jersey) # † ''Kronocharon engeli'' Wunderlich, 2015 (a whipspider in Cretaceous amber from Myanmar) # † ''Dolichoraphidia engeli'' Liu ''& al.'', 2016 (a
snakefly Snakeflies are a group of predatory insects comprising the order Raphidioptera with two extant families: Raphidiidae and Inocelliidae, consisting of roughly 260 species. In the past, the group had a much wider distribution than it does now; s ...
in Cretaceous amber from Myanmar) # ''Eufriesea engeli'' Gonzalez & Griswold, 2017 (an
orchid bee The tribe Euglossini, in the subfamily Apinae, commonly known as orchid bees or euglossine bees, are the only group of corbiculate bees whose non-parasitic members do not all possess eusocial behavior. Description Most of the tribe's species ...
from Mexico) # † ''Elmomantis engeli'' Prokop et al., 2017 (a miomopteran from the Permian of Kansas) # † ''Cretogramma engeli'' Liu et al., 2018 (a kalligrammatid lacewing from the Cretaceous of Myanmar) # † ''Archeofoenus engeli'' Turrisi & Ellenberger, 2019 (an aulacid wasp from the Cretaceous of Myanmar) # † ''Cretoquadratus engeli'' Chen, 2019 (a ship-timber beetles from the Cretaceous of Myanmar) # † ''Mesophthirus engeli'' Gao, Shih, Rasnitsyn, & Ren, 2019 (a coccoid crawler from the Cretaceous of Myanmar) # † ''Deltoxyela engeli'' Wang, Shih, Ren, & Gao, 2020 (a sawfly from the Cretaceous of Myanmar) # † ''Cretopiesma engelgrimaldii'' Azar, Heiss, & Huang, 2020 (a flat bug from the Cretaceous of Myanmar) # ''Sphecodes engeli'' Astafurova & Proshchalykin, 2020 (a cuckoo bee from Laos) # †''Archaeoserphites engeli'' Rasnitsyn & Ohm-Kuhnle, 2020 (an archaeoserphitid wasp in Kachin amber) # †''Chlorepyris engeli'' Colombo & Azevedo, 2021 (a flat wasp in Baltic amber) # †''Archaeovespa engeli'' Wu, Shih, Ren, & Gao, 2021 (a
vespid The Vespidae are a large (nearly 5000 species), diverse, cosmopolitan family of wasps, including nearly all the known eusocial wasps (such as ''Polistes fuscatus'', ''Vespa orientalis'', and ''Vespula germanica'') and many solitary wasps. Each ...
wasp in Kachin amber) # †''Mesoserphites engeli'' Herbert & McKellar, 2022 (a serphitid wasp in Kachin amber)


Publications


Books

*''Evolution of the Insects'' (Cambridge Evolution Series), co-authored with David Grimaldi, 2005. *''Innumerable Insects: The Story of the Most Diverse and Myriad Animals on Earth'' (Natural Histories), 2018.


References


External links


Faculty page
at the University of Kansas
Guggenheim Fellows
{{DEFAULTSORT:Engel, Michael S 1971 births Living people People from St. Louis County, Missouri American paleontologists American entomologists Hymenopterists Fellows of the Linnean Society of London Cornell University College of Agriculture and Life Sciences alumni Evolutionary biologists American naturalists 21st-century American zoologists University of Kansas alumni University of Kansas faculty United Church of Christ members People associated with the American Museum of Natural History Fellows of the Entomological Society of America Nautilus Book Award winners