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Pamela C. Rasmussen
Pamela Cecile Rasmussen (born October 16, 1959) is an American ornithologist and expert on Asian birds. She was formerly a research associate at the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C., and is based at the Michigan State University. She is associated with other major centers of research in the United States and the United Kingdom.
Rasmussen's early research investigated South American seabirds and fossil birds from North America. She later specialised in Asian birds describing several new species and clarifying the status of others, particularly white-eyes and owls. More recently, she has been involved in large scale collaborations looking at patterns of global biodiversity, and has assessed the taxonomic status of South Asian vultures.
She was the main author of Birds of South Asia: The Ripley Guide, a landmark publication due to its greater geographical and species coverage compared to its predecessors. As a result of her study of museum bird specimens when researching for the book, she was instrumental in unveiling the extent of the theft from museums and fraudulent documentation perpetrated by eminent British ornithologist Richard Meinertzhagen.
Pamela Rasmussen is the daughter of Helen Rasmussen, a Seventh-day Adventist, whose husband, Chester Murray Rasmussen, a doctor, had left the family when Pamela and her sisters were young. Her interest in birds started when her mother bought her the junior edition of Oliver Austin's Birds of the World, and Pamela subsequently always chose to receive bird books as presents.
She took her M.S. in 1983 at Walla Walla University, an Adventist-affiliated university in southeast Washington, and her Ph.D. at the University of Kansas in 1990. At Kansas, she studied blue-eyed shags, and was introduced to evolutionary theory, which had not been taught at her alma mater.
Rasmussen is a visiting assistant professor of zoology, and assistant museum curator of mammalogy and ornithology, at Michigan State University (MSU), having formerly been a research associate for the eminent American ornithologist S. Dillon Ripley at the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C. She is a member of the American Ornithological Society (AOS) North American Classification Committee (NACC), a scientific associate with the bird group of the British Natural History Museum zoology section at Tring, and an associate editor of The Ibis, the scientific journal of the British Ornithologists' Union. She is a scientific affiliate for the Field Museum of Natural History and the founder and editor of AVoCet, MSU's avian vocalizations center. In 2020 she replaced the ornithologist Frank Gill as an editor of the IOC World Bird List, an online list maintained on behalf of the International Ornithologists' Union.
Rasmussen is married to Michael D. Gottfried, who is Curator of Paleontology, Associate Professor of Geology, and Director of the Center for Integrative Studies in General Science at MSU.
Rasmussen's early work was largely focused on studies of the systematics, ecology and behaviour of Patagonian seabirds, notably cormorants. She studied plumage variations in juvenile blue-eyed, king and red-legged cormorants, and used plumage and behavioural patterns to establish relationships between king and blue-eyed shags. She also reviewed the fishing activity of olivaceous cormorants.
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Pamela C. Rasmussen
Pamela Cecile Rasmussen (born October 16, 1959) is an American ornithologist and expert on Asian birds. She was formerly a research associate at the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C., and is based at the Michigan State University. She is associated with other major centers of research in the United States and the United Kingdom.
Rasmussen's early research investigated South American seabirds and fossil birds from North America. She later specialised in Asian birds describing several new species and clarifying the status of others, particularly white-eyes and owls. More recently, she has been involved in large scale collaborations looking at patterns of global biodiversity, and has assessed the taxonomic status of South Asian vultures.
She was the main author of Birds of South Asia: The Ripley Guide, a landmark publication due to its greater geographical and species coverage compared to its predecessors. As a result of her study of museum bird specimens when researching for the book, she was instrumental in unveiling the extent of the theft from museums and fraudulent documentation perpetrated by eminent British ornithologist Richard Meinertzhagen.
Pamela Rasmussen is the daughter of Helen Rasmussen, a Seventh-day Adventist, whose husband, Chester Murray Rasmussen, a doctor, had left the family when Pamela and her sisters were young. Her interest in birds started when her mother bought her the junior edition of Oliver Austin's Birds of the World, and Pamela subsequently always chose to receive bird books as presents.
She took her M.S. in 1983 at Walla Walla University, an Adventist-affiliated university in southeast Washington, and her Ph.D. at the University of Kansas in 1990. At Kansas, she studied blue-eyed shags, and was introduced to evolutionary theory, which had not been taught at her alma mater.
Rasmussen is a visiting assistant professor of zoology, and assistant museum curator of mammalogy and ornithology, at Michigan State University (MSU), having formerly been a research associate for the eminent American ornithologist S. Dillon Ripley at the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C. She is a member of the American Ornithological Society (AOS) North American Classification Committee (NACC), a scientific associate with the bird group of the British Natural History Museum zoology section at Tring, and an associate editor of The Ibis, the scientific journal of the British Ornithologists' Union. She is a scientific affiliate for the Field Museum of Natural History and the founder and editor of AVoCet, MSU's avian vocalizations center. In 2020 she replaced the ornithologist Frank Gill as an editor of the IOC World Bird List, an online list maintained on behalf of the International Ornithologists' Union.
Rasmussen is married to Michael D. Gottfried, who is Curator of Paleontology, Associate Professor of Geology, and Director of the Center for Integrative Studies in General Science at MSU.
Rasmussen's early work was largely focused on studies of the systematics, ecology and behaviour of Patagonian seabirds, notably cormorants. She studied plumage variations in juvenile blue-eyed, king and red-legged cormorants, and used plumage and behavioural patterns to establish relationships between king and blue-eyed shags. She also reviewed the fishing activity of olivaceous cormorants.