Dr. Kristian Fauchald (1935-2015)
- Ph.D., University of Southern California, Los Angeles, U.S.A., 1969
- Cand. mag. and cand. real., University of Bergen, Norway
Dr. Kristian Fauchald was Research Zoologist Emeritus and Curator of Polychaeta at the National Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institution. He passed away suddenly on Apr. 5, 2015.
Responsibilities: Research Zoologist, Curator of Polychaeta
Research Interests
Systematics, phylogeny and taxonomy of annelids, specifically the marine groups that used to be called Polychaeta. I have spent about 50 years working on these worms, and have participated in making it obvious that the polychaetes are a paraphyletic assemblage of annelids! Currently focusing on the scale worm family Polynoidae, which includes a large number of species commensal with all sorts of other invertebrates.
Professional Activities: Mostly in the past as officer at various levels in such societies as the Southern California Academy of Sciences, Biological Society of Washington, Society for Systematic Zoology and American Society of Zoologists (currently Society for Integrative and Comparative Biology).
Among his extensive publications, Dr. Fauchald was the author of the chapter on Polychaetes of the Gulf of Mexico (Felder and Camp, eds. 2009).