NOTE: I am migrating these web pages to Carl's Google Web Pages. Pages found here are no longer being updated.

Above and below Yosemite Falls, Yosemite National Park, California. - Photos by S. Dick

Brown Postdoctoral Fellow
Postdoctoral Research Scientist
Division of Insects
Division of Mammals
Department of Zoology
Field Museum of Natural History


Postdoctoral Advisor: Bruce D. Patterson, MacArthur Curator of Mammals, Field Museum of Natural History

2005. Ph.D., Zoology, Texas Tech University
1998. M.S., Biology, University of Central Arkansas
1992. B.A., Biology/Environmental Biology, Tabor College

- Board of Directors, American Society of Mammalogists (2003-2006)
- Board of Governors, Southwestern Association of Naturalists (Class of 2007)
- Systematics Collections Committee, American Society of Mammalogists (2002-present)
- Ambassador, American Society of Mammalogists (2002-present)
- Research Associate, Indiana State University, Department of Ecology and Organismal Biology, Center for North American Bat Research and Conservation (2005-present)
- Research Associate, Texas Tech University, The Museum of Texas Tech University, Natural Sciences Research Laboratory (2007-present)
- Past President, Texas Tech University Association of Biologists

Research Interests

My academic interests center on the inter-relationships of ectoparasites and their mammal hosts. In particular, I work on a specialized group of Diptera (true flies) called bat flies. Bat flies are obligate, blood-sucking parasites of bats worldwide, and are found nowhere else. These flies have evolved numerous morphological, physiological, and behavioral adaptations to their parasitic life on the bat’s bodies. These adaptations include a reduction of eye complexity and structure, a reduction of wing structure and functionality, the development of specialized setae and ctenidea (combs) to help keep them on the host, and a specialized reproductive strategy where females nourish the larval stages internally and give single births to "prepupae." Because of their intimate relationships with bats, bat flies provide a model system for studies in ecology and evolution. The particular group of flies I work with are members of a group called Hippoboscoidea, which contains families you’ve probably never heard of (Hippoboscidae, Nycteribiidae, and Streblidae) and one you probably have heard of (Glossinidae - tse tse flies). Tse tse transmit sleeping sickness to humans in sub-saharan Africa and are of critical medical importance. At the Field Museum of Natural History, my studies include taxonomy and systematics of bat flies as well as the ecology and evolution of host-parasite associations.

Morphological evolution in bat flies. Illustration of reduction in wing structure from each of four related bat fly species. None of these wings are functional. (A) from Dick & Wenzel, 2006; (B-D) from Wenzel et al., 1966