Alexandra Szalay is an Australian

anthropologist An anthropologist is a person engaged in the practice of anthropology. Anthropology is the study of aspects of humans within past and present societies. Social anthropology, cultural anthropology and philosophical anthropology study the norms and ...

and mammalogist, who specialises in the study of

Papua New Guinea Papua New Guinea (abbreviated PNG; , ; tpi, Papua Niugini; ho, Papua Niu Gini), officially the Independent State of Papua New Guinea ( tpi, Independen Stet bilong Papua Niugini; ho, Independen Stet bilong Papua Niu Gini), is a country i ...

. The

Gebe cuscus The Gebe cuscus (''Phalanger alexandrae'') is a species of marsupial in the family Phalangeridae. It is endemic to the island of Gebe, North Maluku province, Indonesia Indonesia, officially the Republic of Indonesia, is a country in South ...

(''Phalanger alexandrae'') is named after her.

Career

Szalay has studied the cultural significance of tree kangaroos to New Guinean people, particularly in body adornment and accessories. She has worked at the Australian Museum, in the anthropology and the mammalogy departments. She undertook postgraduate study at the

University of Sydney The University of Sydney (USYD), also known as Sydney University, or informally Sydney Uni, is a public research university located in Sydney, Australia. Founded in 1850, it is the oldest university in Australia and is one of the country's si ...

, where her thesis was entitled: ''Maokop : the montane cultures of central Irian Jaya : environment, society, and history in highland West New Guinea''. As part of her research she catalogued the archives held at the

South Australia Museum The South Australian Museum is a natural history museum and research institution in Adelaide, South Australia, founded in 1856 and owned by the Government of South Australia. It occupies a complex of buildings on North Terrace in the cultu ...

of the missionaries Norman and Sheila Draper. Szalay has written about religion in West Papua, as well as the West Papuan independence movement. Szalay is married to the climate campaigner and explorer

Tim Flannery Timothy Fridtjof Flannery (born 28 January 1956) is an Australian mammalogist, palaeontologist, environmentalist, Conservation biology, conservationist, Exploration, explorer, author, Science communication, science communicator, activist and p ...

. They met when she joined his 1994 expedition to New Caledonia. During the trip they collected

Pleistocene The Pleistocene ( , often referred to as the ''Ice age'') is the geological Epoch (geology), epoch that lasted from about 2,580,000 to 11,700 years ago, spanning the Earth's most recent period of repeated glaciations. Before a change was fina ...

fossil fauna from several places, including Kelangurr Cave. Szalay's father was Hungarian and a pilot in the Second World War.

Eponym

Whilst a member of the 1994 expedition with Tim Flannery and Indonesian scientist Boeadi, a new species of cuscus was described for the first time and named after Szalay. The cuscus is only found in the island of

Gebe Gebe is an island in Maluku Islands, Indonesia. Administratively it is part of Central Halmahera, North Maluku. The island is part of a small island group which also include Fau island, Yoi, Uta, and Sain. Gebe is part of the Halmahera rain f ...

in the North Moluccas. The

(''Phalanger alexandrae'') lives between sea level and 300m and is endemic to the island in inhabits.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Szalay, Alexandra Living people Year of birth missing (living people) Date of birth missing (living people) Australian mammalogists Australian anthropologists Australian women anthropologists Women zoologists University of Sydney alumni Australian people of Hungarian descent