Davies, Valerie Ethel (1920 - 2012)

Summary

Valerie Davies was appointed Curator of Arachnids at the Queensland Museum in 1972. She built up the collection by organising and attending numerous expeditions and systematically sorted and identified each specimen herself. Her research interest lay in tiny litter species in minor families. Davies has authored over forty publications including Australian spiders (Araneae): collection, preservation and identification (1986). She described over 150 new species, 17 genera and the family Malkaridae, and the spider genus Toddiana and 15 species were named in her honour.

Details

Chronology

1939

Education - Bachelor of Science (BSc) completed at Otago University in New Zealand

1942

Education - Master of Science with Honours (MSc (Hons)) completed at Otago University, New Zealand

1943 - 1944

Career position - Research Assistant in the Department of Pharmacology at the University of Otago, New Zealand

1944 - 1945

Career position - Assistant Lecturer in Zoology at the University of Otago in New Zealand

1948

Education - Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) completed at Somerville College, Oxford, UK

1962 - 1963

Career position - Nuffield Research Fellow in the Department of Zoology at the University of Otago, New Zealand

1964 - 1972

Career position - Tutor in the Department of Zoology (part-time) at the University of Queensland

1972 - 1974

Career position - Curator of Arachnids at the Queensland Museum

1974 - 1978

Career position - Research Curator at the Queensland Museum

1976 - 1985

Career position - Honorary Consultant for the Department of Entomology at the University of Queensland

1978 - 1981

Career position - Deputy-Chair, Queensland Rhodes Scholarship Selection Committee

1978 - 1985

Career position - Senior Curator at the Queensland Museum

1984

Career position - Participant in Expedition Wanderlust to Hinchinbrook Island

1985

Life event - Retired

1985 - 2002

Career position - Honorary Associate, Queensland Museum

1988

Award - Queensland Museum Medal

1989 - 1992

Career position - Vice-President of the Centre Internationale Documentaire Arachnologique

1992

Career position - Secretary, XII International Congress of Arachnology, Brisbane

1993

Life event - Settled in Australia

2010

Award - Lifetime Achievement Award, International Society of Arachnology

Related entries

Published resources

Encyclopedia of Australian Science and Innovation Exhibitions

• McCarthy, Gavan; Morgan, Helen; Smith, Ailie; van den Bosch, Alan, Where are the Women in Australian Science?, Exhibition of the Encyclopedia of Australian Science and Innovation, First published 2003 with lists updated regulary edn, Australian Science and Technology Heritage Centre, Melbourne, Victoria, 2003, https://eoas.info/exhibitions/wisa/wisa.html. Details

Edited Books

• McKay, Judith ed., Brilliant Careers: Women Collectors and Illustrators in Queensland (Brisbane: Queensland Museum, 1997), 80 pp. Details

Journal Articles

• Davies, Rosemary and Monteith, Geoff, 'Obituary: Valerie Ethel (Todd) Davies (1920 - 2012)', Australasian arachnology, 85 (2013), 8-13. Details

Newspaper Articles

• Davies, Rosemary, 'Leading light in world of arachnids: Valerie Davies', Sydney Morning Herald (2013), https://www.smh.com.au/national/leading-light-in-world-of-arachnids-20130106-2cb3n.html. Details

Resources

• Wikidata, http://www.wikidata.org/entity/Q13408849. Details
• VIAF - Virtual International Authority File, OCLC, https://viaf.org/viaf/93908677. Details
• 'Davies, Valerie Todd (1920-)', Trove, National Library of Australia, 2009, https://nla.gov.au/nla.party-589165. Details

See also

• Archive of past Queensland entomologists, Entomological Society of Queensland, 2019. https://www.esq.org.au/archive-intro.html. Details