- Dr. Angelo P. Capparella, a Research
Triangle native, earned a B.A. in Zoology and Geology at
the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, an M.A.
in Museum Science (Natural History) at Texas Tech
University, and a Ph.D. in Zoology (Systematics &
Evolutionary Biology) at Louisiana State University. His
specialty is neotropical avian systematics and conservation biology.
- Capparella's postdoctoral fellowship was
in ornithology at the American Museum of Natural History.
Prior to arriving at Illinois State University in 1988,
he worked for the Environmental Protection Agency, the
North Carolina State Museum of Natural History, and the
Carnegie Museum of Natural History. He is a Fellow of the
American Ornithological Union and a Research Associate of
the Field Museum of Natural History.
- Since 1977, Capparella has been exploring
uninhabited regions of Central America, South America,
and the Caribbean to gather data on the effect of river
barriers to avian evolutionary development and to
discover new bird species. (Fortunately, he has been
involved in three discoveries to date.) Regions explored
include Argentina, Bolivia, Chile, Costa Rica, Ecuador,
El Salvador, Guatemala, Guyana, Honduras, Mexico,
Nicaragua, and Peru. The 1987 expedition to Peru has been
chronicled in Don Stap's A PARROT WITHOUT A NAME (1991).
- In the department of Biological Sciences
Capparella teaches avian biology, systematic biology,
human ecology, conservation biology, evolution, and other
related courses. He is the Director of the M.S. Conservation Biology
Sequence. He is the Curator of the John Wesley Powell-Dale Birkenholz
Natural History Collections (birds and mammals).