Jennifer E. Fairman E-Mail:jfairman@jhu.edu Contract Biomedical Illustrator and WWW Specialist M.A. Medical and Biological Illustration, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine,1999 B.S. Biology, University of Maryland, 1995 B.A. Studio Art, University of Maryland, 1995 To see my resume, click here.

Background/Research Interests

A graduate of the University of Maryland and the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Jennifer Elizabeth Fairman is an entomological illustrator and web designer currently working for the Systematic Entomology Laboratory in the Smithsonian Institution's National Museum of Natural History Department of Entomology on a grant from the James Smithson Society. Fairman is a member of the Guild of Natural Science Illustrators and Association of Medical Illustrators.

Symposia

• Prosauropod and Iguanid Jaw Musculature: A Study on the Evolution of Form and Fuction
  Assocation of Medical Illustrators Annual Meeting, Atlanta, GA July 29-August 2, 1996
  
• HTML:The Internet and the World Wide Web National GNSI Conference, Washington, D.C. July 14-18, 1996
  
• The Dissemination of Biosystematic Information on the World Wide Web, Entomological Society of America National Convention, Louiville, Kentucky, December 8-12,1996
  
• Smithsonian Institution 150th Birthday Party on the Mall,Washington, DC, August 10 and 11, 1996
  
• The Dissemination of Biosystematic Information on the World Wide Web,Entomological Society of America Eastern Branch, Williamsburg, VA
  
• The Dissemination of Biosystematic Information on the World Wide Web,Department of Entomology at the National Museum of Natural History

• Other Symposia

Exhibitions

• Eyes on Science, National Museum of Natural History, Washington, DC, July 1, 1996 through January 1, 1997
  
• From Easel to Book: Picturing Natural History,The Smithsonian Institution Libraries' Private Exhibition, National Museum of Natural History, Washington, DC, July 1996 - January 1997
  
• The 29th Annual Exhibition of the Guild of Natural Science Illustrators, The Museum of Art and History, Santa Cruz, CA, June - September, 1997
  
• The Aquatic Animal Health Symposium, Renaissance Hotel, Baltimore, MD, 1998
  
• The 31st Annual Exhibition of the Guild of Natural Science Illustrators, Richland, WA, August 7-14, 1999

The Fruit Fly Expert System and Biosytematic Information Database is the first of two projects Fairman has worked on during her stay at the Department of Entomology's Diptera Unit as a student intern hired on a Senior Summer Scholarship 'from the University of Maryland. The project entails both the utilization of entomological systematic research data as well as artistic renderings, sketches, and illustration of insects. All of these components are combined into a computerized taxonomic key. It specifically provides a researcher with images and character data of Tephritids (Family: Tephritidae, common name: Fruit Flies), which have been considered of economic importance.

James Smithson Society's Costa Rican Biodiversity Project

With funds provided by the James Smithson Society Grant, The Diptera Unit, through the work of Fairman, under the direction of F. Christian Thompson and Wayne N. Mathis, is conducting a pilot study on the Dissemination and repatriation of specimen-based natural history information. Costa Rica was selected as the target to aid their national effort towards the sustainable use and conservation of wild biodiversity. The Diptera Unit will provide a species inventory of the Smithsonian collections of Diptera, with an indication of those from Costa Rica. In addition, a specimen-label-data inventory of selected groups of files from Costa Rica will be provided. These inventories will be documented by images of typical specimens. The last stage of the project will be dedicated to preparing the databases and images for dissemination via CD-ROM disks and on the INTERNET using our Gopher and World-Wide-Web interfaces.

"Biodiversity holds the promise of sustainable development for the world. Terrestrial arthropods provide the broadcast and finest-scale description of the biosphere as there are more species and individuals with longer histories and greater variation. Thus for entomology, our challenge is to manage the data associated with our specimens efficiently and effectively to increase knowledge and to disseminate the derived information. Using flies, one of the major groups of arthropods in size and importance to man, we will address this challenge, demonstrating that arthropods are the key to utilizing biodiversity for sustainable development."