Victor Fet

I came to the USA from Russia in 1988. Besides teaching various biology courses for 10 years here at Marshall, I am a researcher with broad interests in various aspects of evolution, genetics, zoology, and biogeography. My research involves reconstructing evolutionary history (phylogeny) with molecular techniques, particularly DNA sequence analysis - same methods as used in forensic science, DNA fingerprinting, and genetic engineering.

I am especially interested in taxonomy, systematics, paleontology, and various phenomena specific to scorpions, an animal group that demonstrated remarkable adaptations and diversity acquired in their 400,000,000 years of known evolutionary history. Students are actively involved in my lab research and publication of the results. With my co-authors, I published the Catalog of the Scorpions of the World (2000).

Another aspect of my research is evolution and biodiversity of desert and mountain animals and biotas, especially in Central Asia, Mediterranean, and Baja California (Mexico). In 2001-2002, the National Geographic Society sponsored my expedition to Central Asian deserts to study scorpions there. My field travels took me to Mexico, Pakistan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Bulgaria, Greece, Austria, Slovenia, and New Zealand. I worked in the natural history museums of England, Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Russia, and Bulgaria, and studied animal collections loaned from dozens of other museums. I run a number of cooperative projects with researchers from many countries. In 1994, I translated into English and edited a book, Biogeography and Ecology of Turkmenistan (Kluwer), the first ecological monograph about this little-know area of Asia.

In January-June 2005, I was on a sabbatical leave as a Fulbright Scholar Program grant recipient in Bulgaria. This allowed me to work on as an editor and contributor on a new book, Biogeography and Ecology of Bulgaria, to be published by Springer in 2006.

I also published two books of poetry in Russian.