Stanley B. Mulaik (September 30, 1902 – March 17, 1995) was an American zoologist and educator. He was born in

Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania Pittsburgh ( ) is a city in Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, United States, and its county seat. It is the List of municipalities in Pennsylvania#Municipalities, second-most populous city in Pennsylvania (after Philadelphia) and the List of Un ...

to Lithuanian parents. He received a bachelor's degree in science education and worked as a school teacher for several years until commencing his PhD studies at the

University of Utah The University of Utah (the U, U of U, or simply Utah) is a public university, public research university in Salt Lake City, Utah, United States. It was established in 1850 as the University of Deseret (Book of Mormon), Deseret by the General A ...

in 1939. His dissertation presented several new species and genera of

isopods Isopoda is an Order (biology), order of crustaceans. Members of this group are called isopods and include both Aquatic animal, aquatic species and Terrestrial animal, terrestrial species such as woodlice. All have rigid, segmented exoskeletons ...

and demonstrated that isopods were native to the Americas, rather than introduced from the Old World as previously thought. He was appointed as an assistant (and later associate) professor at the University of Utah, where he taught courses in nature study, conservation, the teaching of biology, museum techniques, and arthropod anatomy. He was elected a fellow of the

American Association for the Advancement of Science The American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) is a United States–based international nonprofit with the stated mission of promoting cooperation among scientists, defending scientific freedom, encouraging scientific responsib ...

, and was a Director of the Conservation Education Association from 1954 to 1957. He was jointly or separately involved in describing over 200 new species of spiders, isopods, scorpions and mites. For his taxonomic work he often collaborated with his wife Dorothea D. Mulaik (1900-1996). The Mulaiks are commemorated in the names of several organisms, including nine spider species from Texas.

References

* * * {{Authority control American arachnologists 20th-century American zoologists University of Utah faculty University of Utah alumni American science teachers Academics from Pittsburgh 1902 births 1995 deaths American people of Lithuanian descent