About Us

sphinx moths

Curator: Dr. Karen E. Powers
Professor, Biology
kpowers4@radford.edu

Major Contributors
Older specimen tags indicate that some individuals were donated to Radford University by the National Museum of Natural History (Smithsonian), the American Museum of Natural History, and others.  However, since the 1960s, the majority of plants and animals have been collected by former and current Radford University faculty and students. Contributors of numerous specimens include:

  • Dr. Paul Randolph Burch (Professor emeritus) - contributions of gastropod (snail) specimens (1950s)
  • Dr. Karen Powers (current faculty - Professor) - contemporary contributions of animal specimens (ca. 2003 to present)
  • Dr. Richard Hoffman (Professor emeritus) - substantial contributions of plant and animals specimens (ca. 1963 - 1978)
  • Dr. Charles Kugler (Professor emeritus) - substantial contributions of invertebrate specimens (1980s)
  • Dr. Don Messersmith (Professor emeritus) - responsible for salvage of numerous 18th-century taxidermied bird specimens in the 1960s. Also contributed numerous insect specimens
  • Dr. Pat Mikesell (Professor emeritus) - substantial contributions of botanical (herbarium) specimens (ca. 1960 - 1995)
  • Dr. Christine Small (current faculty - Professor) - contemporary contributions of herbarium specimens (ca. 2006 to present)
  • Ms. Judy A. Smith - former student from the late 1970s that added hundreds of herbariums specimens from Pulaski and Giles Co., VA, many of which were county records published in: Allen, E.T., K.E. Powers, C.J. Small, and T.F. Wielboldt. 2020. County additions to the Virginia flora vouchered at the Radford University Herbarium. Castanea 85(1):14-22