Education:

• Harvard University, Biology, A.M. 1976; Ph.D. 1980
• University of Illinois, Honors Biology, B.S. 1973
     with high departmental & university honors

• Sam Houston State University, Huntsville, Texas -- Senior Research Scientist
  • Sam Houston State Natural History Collections, 2017-present
• University of Georgia, Athens -- Faculty member
  • Emeritus, 2017-present
  • Odum School/Institute of Ecology, 1994-2016
  • Department of Entomology, 1984-95
  • Institute of Bioinformatics, member, 2006-16
• University of California, Berkeley
  • Postgraduate Research Entomologist, Div. of Biological Control, 1982-84
  • Research Associate, Div. of Entomology & Parasitology, 1981-82
  • Miller Postdoctoral Fellow, Dept. of Entomological Sciences, 1979-81

• Colors of Science Art Contest, National Council for Science and the Environment, 2020
     1st place in photography for How many species do you see? (image)
• Green Champion, Go Green Alliance, University of Georgia, 2010
     SMART initiative for outstanding efforts related to sustainability
• Mellon Senior Research Fellowship, 1996-98
     Organization for Tropical Studies, Costa Rica
     Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute, Panama
• Outstanding Upper Division Advisor Award, 1996
     University of Georgia
• Special Sandy Beaver Award for Teaching Excellence, 1994
     University of Georgia
• Outstanding Conference Paper Presentation, 1991
     GRASS Users Conference, Berkeley
• Postdoctoral Fellowship, Miller Institute for Basic Research in Science, 1979-81
• Predoctoral Fellowship, Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute, 1976-77
• Richmond Fellow, Harvard University, 1974-79
• Bronze Tablet, University of Illinois, 1973

• Coyle, D. R., J. Pickering, K. A. Dyer, F. R. Lehman, J. E. Mohan and K. J. K. Gandhi. 2013. Dynamics of an unprecedented outbreak of two native moth species, Cissusa spadix and Phoberia atomeris (Lepidoptera: Noctuidae), on Oak Trees (Quercus spp.) in the Southeastern United States. American Entomologist Summer 2013: 82-94. Feature Article.
• Pickering, J. 2010. Identification guide and illustrated checklist of the moths of North America north of Mexico. Discover Life electronic publication https://www.discoverlife.org/mp/20q?guide=Moth.
• Pickering, J. 2015. Find your dark side: invitation to join Discover Life's Mothing project. Southern Lepidopterists' News 37(4): 204-208. https://www.discoverlife.org/moth/sls201512.pdf
• Pickering, J. 2016. Why fly now? Pupa banks, aposematism, and other factors that may explain observed moth flight activity. Southern Lepidopterists' News 38(1): 67-72. https://www.discoverlife.org/moth/sls201603.pdf
• Pickering, J. and T. Staples. 2016. How to sample moth diversity efficiently in a seasonal environment. Southern Lepidopterists' News 38 (2):142-147. https://discoverlife.org/moth/sls38.142-147.pdf
• Pickering, J., D. Madamba, T. Staples and R. Walcott. 2016. Status of moth diversity and taxonomy: a comparison between Africa and North America north of Mexico. Southern Lepidopterists' News 38 (3):241-248. https://www.discoverlife.org/moth/sls38.241-248.pdf
• Pickering, J., T. Staples and R. Walcott. 2016. Save all species -- Moths light a way? Southern Lepidopterists' News 38 (4):331-336. https://www.discoverlife.org/moth/sls38.331-336.pdf
• Pickering, J. and A. Cherkinsky. 2017. Novel use of 14C bomb-pulse to measure how many years saturniid moths spend as pupae. The 14th International Conference on Accelerator Mass Spectrometry, abstract 75763. https://www.discoverlife.org/pa/or/polistes/re/2016alex/abstract.html
• Shankar, S., D. Sheldon, T. Sun, J. Pickering, T.G. Dietterich. 2019. Three-quarter sibling regression for denoising observational data. Proceedings 28th International Joint Conference on Artificial Intelligence (IJCAI-19):5960-5966. https://www.discoverlife.org/moth/shankaretal2019.pdf

• Ascher, J. S. and J. Pickering. 2011. Discover Life bee species guide and world checklist (Hymenoptera: Apoidea: Anthophila). https://www.discoverlife.org/mp/20q?guide=Apoidea_species (cited by 808)
• Bartlett, R., J. Pickering, I. Gauld and D. Windsor. 1999. Estimating global biodiversity: tropical beetles and wasps send different signals. Ecological Entomology 24: 118-121. (cited by 61)
• Bremermann, H. J. and J. Pickering. 1983. A game-theoretical model of parasite virulence. J. Theoretical Biology 100: 411-426. (cited by 390)
• Farnsworth, E. J., M. Chu, J. W. Kress, A. K. Neill, J. H. Best, J. Pickering, R. D. Stevenson, G. W. Courtney, J. K. VanDyk and A. M. Ellison. 2013. Next-generation field guides. BioScience: 891-899. (cited by 80)
• Getz, W. M., and J. Pickering. 1983. Epidemic models: thresholds and population regulation. American Naturalist 121: 892-898. (cited by 247
• Hargrove, W. W. and J. Pickering. 1992. Pseudoreplication: a sine qua non for regional ecology. Landscape Ecology 6: 251-258. (cited by 325)
• Holt, R. D., and J. Pickering. 1985. Infectious disease and species coexistence: a model of Lotka-Volterra form. American Naturalist 126:196-211. (cited by 352)
• Kaspari, M., J. Pickering, J. T. Longino and D. Windsor. 2001. The phenology of a Neotropical ant assemblage: evidence for continuous and overlapping reproduction. Behavioral Ecology and Sociobiology 50: 382-390. (cited by 77)
• Orr, M.C., A. C. Hughes, D. Chesters, J. Pickering, C. D. Zhu, J.S. Ascher. 2021. Global patterns and drivers of bee distribution. Current Biology 31 (3), 451-458. e4. (cited by 126)
• Pickering, J. 1980. Larval competition and brood sex ratios in the gregarious parasitoid Pachysomoides stupidus. Nature 283: 291-292. (cited by 45)
• Wenzel, J. W., and J. Pickering. 1991. Cooperative foraging, productivity, and the central limit theorem. Proc. Nat. Acad. Sci. USA 88: 36-38. (cited by 96)

Synergistic Activities:

• Discover Life (www.discoverlife.org)
  Founder and builder of this website which is served primarily from the campus cloud at Sam Houston State University. Discover Life enables web users to contribute and retrieve information about nature. It has approximately half a billion database records, 1.4 million valid species names, 820,000 species maps, and 2.5 million images. Since inception in 1998, it has had 5 billion hits from over 30 million unique IP addresses. Since 2010 its Mothing project has collected 990,000 research-grade photographs documenting the phenology, size, and relative abundance of 3,200 species from 25 study sites in the United States, Canada and Costa Rica.

• Polistes Foundation (www.discoverlife.org/polistes)
  Co-founder and president of the Polistes Foundation, a 501-c-3 non-profit thinktank, the mission of which is to assemble and share knowledge about nature in order to improve education, health, agriculture, economic development, and conservation throughout the world. Polistes works with many museums, herbaria, and other organizations. Since 2002 it has been supported to integrate databases and help participants in biodiversity research by the U.S. Geological Survey, National Science Foundation, National Park Service, Fish and Wildlife Servive, and private sources. The foundation's board of directors is coordinating SHIELD (Species, Health, and Interactions of Ecosystems Linked to Drivers), the long-term goal of which is to build an extensive network of study sites to address grand scientific and management challenges regarding biodiversity and ecosystems using state-of-the-art techniques.

• Shoal Creek Sanctuary (www.discoverlife.org/sanctuary)
  Owner and manager of this 100 hectare nature preserve and study site in Clarke County, Georgia.