More than 40 years of excellence: the outstanding contribution of the South African Edward A. Ueckermann to acarology

Abstract

Great contribution to acarology has been provided by the South African taxonomist Edward A. Ueckermann, for the knowledge of mites of his country and of several other countries. His major contribution for more than 40 years concerns predaceous and phytophagous mites of many different families. He has conducted collaborative works with researchers from different countries, including Cape Verde, Marion and Reunion Islands, Israel, Kenya, Egypt, Zambia, Zimbabwe, United Arab Emirates, Yemen, Brazil, Iran and USA. In addition, he has trained researchers and students of different countries in his specialty. More than 240 new species and 23 new genera were described by him, in more than 212 high quality scientific papers. His contribution has been recently recognized by the South Africa National Research Foundation, entitling him to receive incentive funding. Despite retiring in January 2016, he continues to participate in research activities in full professional capacity, collaborating with researchers from South Africa and elsewhere