I have the sad duty to report that Dr. Amelie Scheltema passed away
suddenly last evening. She had been in her office in Woods Hole earlier in
the week and apparently was stricken with a heart attack at her home.
Amelie was a friend and teacher to many on this List. Although not a
polychaete specialist, she collaborated with many of us and her careful and
creative work on the aplacophorans was an inspiration. She and her husband
Rudolf attended several of the polychaete conferences and I know for a fact
that they really liked the IPC meetings and interacting with their friends.
At the 5th IPC in Qingdao, Amie presented and published a paper suggesting
that aplacophorans were deep-sea analogs to polychaetes.
Having worked in Woods Hole for 25 years, there were many opportunities to
interact with the Scheltemas. I recall in the late 1990s asking Amelie for
advice on how to set up a cladistics database for a spionid review I was
working on. She took me to her lab and sat me down at a Mac. Having never
worked with a Mac, I was at loss as to how to proceed. She showed me how to
use the Mac and MaClade software and also introduced me to her Post-doc,
Pam Arnofsky (now Neubert) working in her lab on solenogastres on the NSF
PEET grant. Eventually working with Pam who had an early version of PAUP,
we worked up a phylogeny of spionids that was incorporated into a paper on
spionid reproduction and development.
Both Amelie and her husband Rudolf were always available for discussions
about taxonomic and ecological problems.
Amelie will be greatly missed.
Jim
--
James A. Blake, Ph.D.
Aquatic Research & Consulting
24 Hitty Tom Road
Duxbury, MA 02332
CELL: 508-277-2760
E-Mail: jablake9 from gmail.com
