James Van Remsen, Jr.

James Vanderbeek "Van" Remsen, Jr. (born September 21, 1949 in Newark, New Jersey) is an American ornithologist. His main research field is the Neotropical avifauna. In 1999, he founded the South American Classification Committee.^[1] In 2013, he was honored with the Brewster Medal of the American Ornithologists' Union.^[2]

Career

At the age of five Van Remsen developed his passion for field observation and at the age of eleven he was a keen birder. In 1967, he earned his high-school diploma at the Phillips Academy in Andover, Massachusetts. In summer 1968 he worked for the Denver Wildlife Research Center.^[2] In 1971, he graduated both to Master of Arts and Bachelor of Arts in biology at the Stanford University,^[2] where among others Harold A. Mooney, David F. DeSante, and Paul R. Ehrlich were his advisors. In 1978, he received his PhD in zoology at the University of California, Berkeley under the direction of Frank Pitelka with his dissertation Geographical ecology of Neotropical Kingfishers.,^[2] based on almost two years of fieldwork in Amazonian Colombia and Bolivia. In the same year he became a professor and curator of birds at Louisiana State University.

He published his first scientific paper at age 20, and published other technical papers during his graduate student years, including the article On taking field notes in the journal American Birds which became much-noticed by field observers and American birders in the following decades.^[2]

While at LSU, Remsen spent a total of two years in the remote areas of the Amazon and the Andes, which became the basis for the book An Annotated List of the Birds of Bolivia, which was published in 1989 in collaboration with Melvin Alvah Traylor, Jr., as well as many technical papers. In 1991, Van Remsen published the monograph Community Ecology of Neotropical Kingfishers, and in 1997 produced the monograph "Studies in Neotropical Ornithology Honoring Ted Parker" "Ornithological Monographs"" No. 48: 1-917), a collection of 51 peer-reviewed papers honoring his best friend Ted Parker after his untimely death. In 2007, he co-edited with Carla Cicero another monograph honoring the career his mentor Ned K. Johnson: "Festschrift to Ned K. Johnson: Geographic Variation and Evolution in Birds. "Ornithological Monographs" 63: 1-114."

To start a standardized classification and nomenclature of the Neotropical avifauna, Van Remsen sent a proposal to the American Ornithologists' Union in 1997 to create a South American counterpart to the already known AOU Check-list Committee which covered the avifauna of the Western Hemisphere from Panama and north to the Caribbean.^[1] In 1999, the proposal for the constitution of the South American Classification Committee (SACC) has been approved^[1] and in October 2000 the first classification (on the split of the Huayco Tinamou (Rhynchotus maculicollis) from the Red-winged Tinamou (Rhynchotus rufescens) was available online.^[3] The system that Remsen invented for SACC was to place all proposals for change online and open access, as well as comments and votes concerning those proposals; thus, the system is completely transparent and qualified non-committee members are invited to contribute. Remsen is also a member (since 1984) of the American Ornithologists' Union's North American Classification Committee and thus co-author of the printed version of that classification (Banks, R. C., B. L. Monroe, Jr., J. W. Fitzpatrick, T. R. Howell, N. K. Johnson, H. Ouellet, J. V. Remsen, Jr., & R. W. Storer. 1998. "Check-list of North American Birds". 7th Edition. American Ornithologists' Union, Washington, D.C., 829 pp.)

In 1998, he co-described (with Robb Thomas Brumfield) the subspecies Cinnycerthia fulva gravesi and Cinnycerthia fulva fitzpatricki of the fulvous wren.^[4]

In 2003, he wrote the 196-page chapter of the family of ovenbirds (Furnariidae) in the eighth volume of the Handbook of the Birds of the World and in collaboration with Edward C. Dickinson he was co-author of the third edition of the Howard and Moore Complete Checklist of the Birds of the World. In 2013, they collaborated again on the fourth edition of the Howard & Moore checklist on non-passerines ("The Howard and Moore Complete Checklist of the Birds of the World. Vol. 1. Non-passerines. Aves Press, Eastbourne, U.K., 461 pp.")

In 2005, he was co-author (among others with John W. Fitzpatrick and Tim Gallagher) of a much-noticed article in the scientific journal Science where the rediscovery of the ivory-billed woodpecker (Campephilus principalis) was announced.^[5]

Remsen has advised 20 PhD students and 15 M.S. students, many of whom are now prominent ornithologists.

In 2016, Remsen was one of the co-authors of the richly illustrated field guide Birds of Bolivia by Sebastian K. Herzog.

Honors

In 2013, Van Remsen received the Brewster Medal of the American Ornithologists' Union for his contributions to the study, the taxonomy, and nomenclature of the South American avifauna.^[2] In 1994, he has been commemorated with the species' epithet of the vulnerable chestnut-bellied cotinga (Doliornis remseni) which is found in Colombia, Ecuador, and Peru.^[6] He has received awards from LSU for excellence in both undergraduate teaching and graduate student advising.

References

1. 1 2 3 J. V. Remsen, Jr.: The South American Classification Committee of the American Ornithologists’ Union: a new classification of the birds of South America In: Neotropical Birding, July 13, 2007, p 21–23
2. 1 2 3 4 5 6 The American Ornithologists' Union: William Brewster Memorial Award, 2013: J. V. (“Van”) Remsen, Jr. In: The Auk, 130(4):819–820.
3. ↑ Proposal (1) to South American Classification Committee Elevate "Rhynchotus maculicollis" to species rank
4. ↑ Remsen, J.V. & Brumfield, R.T. (1998) Two new subspecies of "Cinnycerthia fulva" (Aves: Troglodytidae) from the southern Andes. In: Proc. Biol. Soc. Washington 111(4): 1008–1015.
5. ↑ John W. Fitzpatrick, Martjan Lammertink, M. David Luneau, Tim W. Gallagher, Bobby R. Harrison, Gene M. Sparling, Kenneth V. Rosenberg, Ronald W. Rohrbaugh, Elliott C. H. Swarthout, Peter H. Wrege, Sara Barker Swarthout, Marc S. Dantzker, Russell A. Charif, Timothy R. Barksdale, J. V. Remsen, Scott D. Simon, Douglas Zollner: Ivory-billed Woodpecker (Campephilus principalis) Persists in Continental North America. In: Science. 308, Nr. 5727, June 3, 2005, ISSN 1095-9203, p 1460–1462, doi:10.1126/science.1114103
6. ↑ Mark B. Robbins, Gary H. Rosenberg, Francisco Sornoza Molina: A New Species of Cotinga (Cotingidae: Doliornis) from the Ecuadorian Andes, with Comments on Plumage Sequences in Doliornis and Ampelion. In: The Auk. Bd. 111, Nr. 1, January 1994, p 1–7