On Thursday 4/15, EEB held a reception to celebrate the legacy of Ralph M. Wetzel.  Attendees included Wetzel family members, friends, former students, and EEB faculty members and students.  The event included remarks by Director of the Vertebrate Collections Eric Schultz (who emphasized how the Ralph M. Wetzel Fund has played an important role in supporting the student research), Bob Dubos (who had been a student of Wetzel’s and who played a critical role in discovery of the Chacoan peccary), Greg Anderson (who had been a young faculty member when Wetzel was on faculty), and Holly Brown (who designed a display case that highlights the mammals in the Biodiversity Research Collection, and Wetzel’s contribution to it).  In this picture, Wetzel’s children Neal, Erica and Chris Wetzel stand in front of the display case.  The reception was followed by a viewing of hummingbird videos by Alejandro Rico-Guevara, a recipient of Wetzel funds, and a research presentation by Phil Myers (emeritus faculty at University of Michigan), who had been a colleague of Wetzel’s and was a coauthor on the paper describing the Peccary’s rediscovery.

---