Zuleyma Tang-Martinez
Zuleyma Tang-Martinez (born in Venezuela, March 9, 1945) is a Latina Professor Emeritus in Biology at the University of Missouri-Saint Louis.[1][2] She is well known for her research in animal behavior and in how animals recognize family members.[1][2][3] She studies these behaviors in mice, voles, gerbils, and capybaras. [1] Without her research, we would not know much about chemical communication between mammals.[1]
Early life[change | change source]
Tang-Martinez was born in Ciudad Bolivar, Venezuela.[2]
She has two younger sisters.[2] Yajarayama Tang-Feldman is now a researcher at the University of California, Davis School of Nursing.[2] Morayma Tang-Martinez lives in Venezuela.[2]
Her father was an accountant.[2] He worked for American oil companies in Venezuela.[2] The companies were all drilling for oil near rainforests.[2] They moved to a new camp every few years.[2] Tang-Martinez liked to observe capybaras and other animals from the rainforest.[2]
When she was seven, Tang-Martinez's family moved to Tulsa, Oklahoma, USA.[2] She lived there for two years.[2]
Later in his life, her father suffered from Alzheimer's Disease.[2]
Education[change | change source]
Tang-Martinez returned to the United States for high school. The oil camps' schools did not have high school.[2]
She studied biology at Saint Louis University. She graduated in 1967.[2]
At University of California, Berkeley, Tang-Martinez studied Zoology (M.A., 1970; Ph.D. 1976).[2] In graduate school Tang-Martinez developed the "habituation-discrimination technique" to measure how animals communicate using smell.[1]
She did two more years of research at the University of British Columbia before working as an assistant professor at University of Missouri, St. Louis.[2]
Career[change | change source]
Tang-Martinez was on the faculty of University of Misouri-St. Louis from 1976-2014. In 2014 she retired.
Tang-Martinez studies social behavior in animals. Animals create chemicals and use the chemicals' smells to communicate with other animals.
With B. Diane Chepko-Sade, she edited a book about how animals spread out over the land where they live in order to mix up gene pools. It is called "Mammalian Dispersal Patterns: The Effects of Social Structure on Population Genetics."[2]
Tang-Martinez was chair of the Division of Animal Behavior fir the American Society of Zoologists from 1990-1992.[2] She was president of the Animal Behavior Society from 1993-1994.[1] She won the Animal Behavior Society Exceptional Service Career Award and the Quest Award for Outstanding Research Contributions.[1] Tang-Martinez received the Woman Trailblazer Award in 2008.[2]
Advocacy[change | change source]
Tang-Martinez was a volunteer for the Alzheimer's Association beginning in 1990.[2] In 2002 she got the St. Louis Chapter's Volunteer of the Year Award.[2]
She also founded the Privacy Rights Education Project. That organization fought for LGBT rights. As it grew to cover the state of Missouri, it changed its name to PROMO.[2] Tang-Martinez and her female partner, Arlene Zarembka wanted to get married.[4] In 2013 they applied for money that married people get from Social Security when one person retires.[4] The state of Missouri said no.[4]
Tang-Martinez was both the first woman and the first Latinx individual to become a full professor in her department.[2]
Tang-Martinez wants many different kinds of people to be Animal Behavior Scientists.[1] She founded the Latin American Affairs Committee, the Turner Undergraduate Diversity Program, and the Diversity Fund when she was president of the Animal Behavior Society.[1][3] That fund helps students from underrepresented group attend conferences.[1]
Personal life[change | change source]
Tang-Martinez is married to Arlene Zarembka.[2] She enjoys Tai chi chuan, birding, hiking, taking pictures, and collecting stamps and art.[2]
References[change | change source]
- ↑ 1.00 1.01 1.02 1.03 1.04 1.05 1.06 1.07 1.08 1.09 "A Wise Latina Scientist". Archived 2021-12-19 at the Wayback Machine Scientific American Blog. 2010-10-11. Retrieved 2021-12-15
- ↑ 2.00 2.01 2.02 2.03 2.04 2.05 2.06 2.07 2.08 2.09 2.10 2.11 2.12 2.13 2.14 2.15 2.16 2.17 2.18 2.19 2.20 2.21 2.22 2.23 2.24 2.25 2.26 "Zuleyma Tang-Martinez devotes life to studying animal behavior" Archived 2021-12-19 at the Wayback Machine. St. Louis Public Radio. 2011-12-05. Retrieved 2021-12-19.
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 ANIMAL EXPERT PUSHED FIELD FORWARD FOR 34 YEARS, RECEIVES NATIONAL AWARD. (2010, Aug 17). US Fed News Service, Including US State News. Retrieved on December 10, 2021.
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 "ARLENE ZAREMBKA AND ZULEYMA TANG-MARTINEZ: Married 9 years, together 31 years" (PDF). ACLU. Archived (PDF) from the original on 2021-04-29. Retrieved 2022-01-13.