William Albert Shear (born 1942) is Trinkle Professor Emeritus at

Hampden-Sydney College Hampden Sydney is a census-designated place (CDP) in Prince Edward County, Virginia, United States. The population was 1,450 at the 2010 census. Hampden Sydney is the home of Hampden–Sydney College, a private all-male college that is the tenth- ...

, Virginia. He is a spider and myriapod expert who has published more than 200 scientific articles primarily on

harvestman The Opiliones (formerly Phalangida) are an order of arachnids colloquially known as harvestmen, harvesters, harvest spiders, or daddy longlegs. , over 6,650 species of harvestmen have been discovered worldwide, although the total number of ext ...

and

millipede Millipedes are a group of arthropods that are characterised by having two pairs of jointed legs on most body segments; they are known scientifically as the class Diplopoda, the name derived from this feature. Each double-legged segment is a resu ...

taxonomy. He was born in

Coudersport, Pennsylvania Coudersport is a borough in and the county seat of Potter County, Pennsylvania. It is located approximately east by south of Erie on the Allegheny River. The population was 2,371 at the 2020 census. History The Coudersport and Port Allegany Rail ...

, completed his undergraduate work at

College of Wooster The College of Wooster is a private liberal arts college in Wooster, Ohio. Founded in 1866 by the Presbyterian Church as the University of Wooster, it has been officially non-sectarian since 1969 when ownership ties with the Presbyterian Church ...

, masters at the

University of New Mexico The University of New Mexico (UNM; es, Universidad de Nuevo México) is a public research university in Albuquerque, New Mexico. Founded in 1889, it is the state's flagship academic institution and the largest by enrollment, with over 25,400 ...

, and PhD at the

Museum of Comparative Zoology A museum ( ; plural museums or, rarely, musea) is a building or institution that cares for and displays a collection of artifacts and other objects of artistic, cultural, historical, or scientific importance. Many public museums make these ...

at Harvard University under the supervision of

Herbert Walter Levi Herbert Walter Levi (January 3, 1921 – November 3, 2014) was professor emeritus of zoology and curator of arachnology at the Museum of Comparative Zoology, Harvard University. He was born in Germany, educated there and at Leighton Park School, Rea ...

. While at Harvard, Shear completed a revision of the millipede family Cleidogonidae and reclassification of the order

Chordeumatida Chordeumatida (from the Greek word for "sausage") is a large order of millipedes containing some 1200 species with a nearly worldwide distribution. Also known as "sausage millipedes," they possess around 30 body segments behind the head (includi ...

. He is an expert in Paleozoic arthropods, and has published several papers on fossil millipedes, centipedes, and spiders. A number of species are named after him, including ''Hypochilus sheari'' Platnick, 1987 and ''Brachoria sheari'' Marek, 2010. Shear is a lifetime appointee as Senior Scientific Associate at the

Virginia Museum of Natural History The Virginia Museum of Natural History is the state's natural history museum located in Martinsville, Virginia founded in 1984. The museum has several different award-winning publications, is affiliated with the Smithsonian Institution, and has ...

and is a research associate 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 inter ...

and Museum of Comparative Zoology. He lives in

Farmville, Virginia Farmville is a town in Prince Edward and Cumberland counties in the U.S. state of Virginia. The population was 8,216 at the 2010 census. It is the county seat of Prince Edward County. Farmville developed near the headwaters of the Appomattox R ...

, and is an avid iris gardener and Godan (fifth degree black belt) in

Shōrin-ryū Shōrinkan is a branch of the Kobayashi Shōrin-ryū style of Okinawan karate, developed by Shūgorō Nakazato, Hanshi 10th Dan. Nakazato was a student of Chōshin Chibana was an Okinawan martial artist who developed Shorin-ryū karate based on ...

traditional Okinawan karate. His zoological author abbreviation is Shear.

Publications

References

External links

http://www.hsc.edu/Academics/Academic-Majors/Biology/Professors/William-Shear.html

http://www.bbc.com/earth/story/20150623-millipedes-use-chemical-weapons

Wikidata query
of taxa he named. {{DEFAULTSORT:Shear, William Hampden–Sydney College faculty People from Potter County, Pennsylvania College of Wooster alumni University of New Mexico alumni Harvard University alumni 1942 births Living people Arachnologists Myriapodologists American arachnologists Shōrin-ryū practitioners

Publications

See also

References

External links