Armour Seminar: Rachunliu "Chun" Kamei
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About this event
In this session, Rachunliu Kamei presents the talk Caecilians! Not worms, not eels, not snakes.
Rachunliu “Chun” Kamei is a Naga of the Rongmei tribe from the hills of the North Eastern Region (NER) of India. Chun taught as an Assistant Professor at the University of Delhi for nearly six years before resigning in pursuit of a career in natural history. She received her Ph.D. from the University of Delhi and subsequently obtained a Marie Curie postdoc fellowship at the Natural History Museum, London, focusing on the then under-studied caecilians (legless amphibians) from the poorly explored NER of India. Her field-based research on the caecilians of NER of India resulted in the most comprehensive study of caecilians from any one region in Asia. Her primary research interests are taxonomy, systematics, biogeography, and the natural history of amphibians, reptiles, and swamp eels in India. Research that Chun has authored has included the discovery and description of many new species of caecilians, frogs, lizards, and swamp eels, new genera and a new family (Chikilidae) of amphibians, as well as rediscoveries of species long thought to have been extinct. Chun is also committed to public outreach, particularly to the natives in rural parts of NER of India. Chun will present a summary of her research on the fascinating caecilian amphibians, the world's least studied groups of vertebrates (animals with backbones), and briefly, about the professional journey that brought her to her current position as Collections Manager of Amphibians and Reptiles at the Field Museum.
Please join us in Ward Hall on the lower level. If unable to attend in person, register to attend virtually.
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This session is held in conjunction with the Field Museum’s Asian American Native Hawaiian Pacific Islander Heritage Month programming.
Some seminars are recorded and available to view online after the event.
The A. Watson Armour III Seminar Series is a weekly seminar highlighting the research of science professionals across a broad spectrum of scientific interests, disciplines, and lived experiences. This series connects the Field Museum’s research, collections, conservation, and associated community with professionals at the forefront of life, geophysical, and social sciences. Lectures are open to the public and regularly highlight or complement research conducted by Field Museum staff and affiliates.
Have a speaker to suggest? Contact us at armourseminars@fieldmuseum.org.
Anti-harassment statement
The Armour Seminar Committee and the Field Museum are strongly invested in the creation and maintenance of safe and inclusive spaces. To this end, we explicitly refuse to condone harassment, discrimination, or inappropriate behavior. We encourage that proposals for speakers take into account these expectations. Speakers with a known history of, or ongoing investigations of, harassment, discrimination, or other inappropriate behaviors will not be considered. We reserve the right to cancel talks if we learn of such events after an invitation is made.