Dear Arachnological Community,
We just received word of the death of Petra Sierwald. Below is the message from the CEO of the Field Museum in Chicago. I have included an interview with Petra for Issue #95 of the American Arachnological Society newsletter (https://www.americanarachnology.org/news-projects/aas-newsletter/) to read about her life in her own words!
Dear colleagues,
I am saddened to share with you that Petra Sierwald, Associate Curator of Arachnida and Myriapoda, passed away over the weekend. She built her career around collections-based biodiversity research in spiders and millipedes, with a focus on phylogenetics, systematics, and morphological evolution.
Petra was a leader in the field of millipede research, developing it into a vibrant international community as her former postdocs, students, and other trainees formed an active research and training network across the U.S., Mexico, Uruguay, Germany, Vietnam, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, and elsewhere. She led the development of the first global millipede species database (MilliBase.org) and served as its Chief Taxonomic Editor; she also obtained decades of federal grants for projects including the Spider Tree-of-Life and served as editor for several scientific journals.
Dedicated to collections-based research, Petra was instrumental in building and making accessible the Museum's Insects and Invertebrate collections. She also ran the Museum's first Research Experiences for Undergraduates programs, mentored graduate students and postdocs, and taught at the University of Chicago and other area universities. She served as Chair of the Museum's Scholarship Committee for many years and contributed to several permanent and temporary exhibitions, including Underground Adventure, Spiders!, and Fantastic Bug Encounters.
Petra's research spanned the globe, from Mexico and Panama to Myanmar, Vietnam, and South Africa. She also joined Rüdiger Bieler's marine programs, where as an accomplished scuba diver she helped to monitor coral reef health and to survey invasive species on deepwater shipwrecks. See Petra at work in this episode of PBS' Changing Seas: Cryptic Critters.
My deepest sympathy to Rüdiger and to all of you who had the chance to work with Petra through her many years at the Field.
Julian
--
Julian Siggers, PhD
President & CEO
