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Norman I. Platnick Memorial Fund

I am starting a scholarship fund to honor the legacy of my father, Norman I. Platnick. After working with the American Arachnological Society, I am proud to announce that this campaign will fund the creation of the Norman Platnick Award for Arachnid Biodiversity Research. The Norman Platnick Award for Arachnid Biodiversity Research is given for outstanding student oral or poster presentations of research that progresses understanding of arachnid biodiversity through work in systematics, taxonomy, biogeography, or other biodiversity assessments. 

If you found yourself in a random conversation with my dad, you never would have guessed just how smart he actually was due to his humble nature. My father skipped middle school and high school and went to college when he was 12,  receiving a BS degree at 16, MS at 18, and a Ph.D. from Harvard at 21. 

My father was known as the real-life spiderman due to his work as an arachnologist for the American Museum of Natural History in New York City. Norm was a prolific scientist, publishing approximately 3800 pages in 329 papers, including 37 monographs, and six books and edited volumes over the course of his four-decade career. This exceptional body of work fundamentally affected several fields.

He was the author of The World Spider Catalog and the latest book he edited, Spiders of the World, will be published soon.

To learn more about my father, please see the article in Concord University Magazine Fall 2018 issue, starting at page 20.


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Donations 

  • Rich Himmer
    • $25 
    • 4 yrs
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Organizer and beneficiary

Will Platnick
Organizer
Philadelphia, PA
Cara Shillington
Beneficiary

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