Margaret S. Collins

Margaret S. Collins
Born 1922
Institute, West Virginia
Died April 27, 1996
Cayman Islands
Occupation zoologist
Margaret S. Collins conducting an experiment

Margaret James Strickland Collins (1922 – April 27, 1996) was an African-American zoologist, specializing in the study of termites. Collins was responsible, together with her colleague David Nickle, for identifying a new species, the Neotermes luykxi (the Florida dampwood termite).[1][2]

Life and work

Collins was born in 1922 in Institute, West Virginia. She started college at age fourteen and earned a Bachelor of Science degree in biology from West Virginia State University in 1943.[1] She earned a Doctor of Philosophy degree from the University of Chicago in 1950. Her PhD work focused on zoology and her mentor was Alfred E. Emerson.[1] She taught at Florida A&M University and at Howard University. Collins did extensive field work in North and South America, specializing in the insects of Guyana and Florida. From the late 1970s through 1996, Collins was a research associate in the Smithsonian's National Museum of Natural History, Department of Entomology.[3] Her primary area of study was termites of the Caribbean.[3][4]

Collins died April 27, 1996, during a research trip to the Cayman Islands.[1][5]

Published works

Further reading

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 Carey, Charles W. (2008). African Americans in Science: An Encyclopedia of People and Progress. Santa Barbara, Calif.: ABC-CLIO. pp. 51–52. ISBN 9781851099986.
  2. ↑ "Florida dampwood termites". Featured Creatures. University of Florida.
  3. 1 2 "SIA Acc. 01-038, National Museum of Natural History (U.S.) Dept. of Entomology, Curatorial Records, 1959-1996". Smithsonian Institution Archives. Retrieved February 24, 2015.
  4. ↑ Staff (February 5, 1959). "Studies Termites". Jet. 15 (14). p. 25. Retrieved 2016-02-01.
  5. ↑ "Termite expert Margaret Collins dies during trip.". Washington Post. May 5, 1996. Retrieved January 29, 2016.
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