Residence U.S. Spouse Kellie Magill (m. 2009) Role Paleontologist | Name Michael Engel Nationality American | |
 | ||
Born September 24, 1971 (age 52)
Creve Coeur, Missouri, U.S. ( 1971-09-24 ) Institutions University of Kansas (2000-)
American Museum of Natural History (1998–2000) Alma mater Cornell University (Ph.D, 1998)
University of Kansas (B.Sc., 1993)
University of Kansas (B.A., 1993) Doctoral advisor James K. Liebherr (Cornell University) Other academic advisors George C. Eickwort, Thomas D. Seeley, Richard Harrison, Charles D. Michener Education Cornell University (1998), University of Kansas (1989–1993), University of Kansas Awards Guggenheim Fellowship for Natural Sciences, US & Canada | ||
Michael S. Engel, FLS (born September 24, 1971) is an American paleontologist and entomologist, notable for contributions to insect evolutionary biology and classification. In connection with his studies he has undertaken field expeditions in Central Asia, Asia Minor, the Levant, Arabia, eastern Africa, the high Arctic, and South and North America, and has published more than 675 papers in scientific journals and over 725 new living and fossil species. Some of Engel's research images were included in exhibitions on the aesthetic value of scientific imagery.
Contents
Early life and education
Engel married Kellie K. Magill on April 25, 2009, in a ceremony performed by Engel's father.
Career
Engel received a B.Sc. in physiology and cell biology and a B.A. in chemistry from the University of Kansas 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 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. In 2006–2007 Engel resumed regular activity in the American Museum of Natural History while a Guggenheim Fellow, 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 of the Paleontological Society and subsequently the Bicentenary Medal of the Linnean Society of London (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 and received the society's Thomas Say Award.
The following species or genera have been proposed in honor of Dr. Engel:
- 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 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 in Cretaceous amber from Myanmar)
- Eufriesea engeli Gonzalez & Griswold, 2017 (an orchid bee from Mexico)