The RES is delighted to welcome on board three new Editors-in-Chief for Systematic Entomology, Ligia Benavides, Chris Owen, and Emmanuel Toussaint. They will join Bonnie Blaimer (Museum für Naturkunde Berlin, Germany) and Gael Kergoat
(French National Research Institute for Agriculture, France) in editing the journal. The new Editors-in-Chief replace Christiane Weirauch and Marianne Espeland, both of whom stepped down earlier this year. We are extremely grateful for the years of service they have given the society through their work on the journal and wish them well going forward.
Ligia Benevides 
Christopher Owen
Emmanuel Toussaint Ligia Benavides
Department of Invertebrate Zoology, Museum of Comparative Zoology, Harvard University, USA
Liga is the Curatorial Assistant of Arachnids and Myriapods at the Department of Invertebrate Zoology, Museum of Comparative Zoology, Harvard University. She is mostly interested in the taxonomy, systematics and biogeography of arachnid lineages, particularly those with dispersal-limited abilities that inhabit the leaf litter of tropical and montane forests. She is also interested in the incorporation of museum specimens in genomic research, and the application of advanced imaging techniques including confocal microscopy, and micro-CT to reevaluate the phylogeny and taxonomy of different groups of arachnids and myriapods. Her role in the journal is to commission and evaluate submissions focusing on arachnids (excluding mites) and myriapods.
“What excites me the most about joining the Systematic Entomology team, is the opportunity to help increase the scope of the journal to include non-insect terrestrial arthropod groups. This broader focus would not only enrich the journal’s content but also foster interdisciplinary collaborations, enhancing our collective understanding of these often-overlooked taxa.”
– Ligia Benavides
Christopher Owen
USDA, USA
Christopher is an entomologist with broad interests in systematics and evolutionary biology.
His current research focuses on how aphids and beetles co-evolved with plants in agroecosystems through geographic space and time. He employs biological collections, microscopy, molecular evolution, and computational tools to address questions in these areas to develop tools to prevent non-native introductions and control agriculturally important insects. Although aphids and beetles are his current focal systems, he has worked on many other organisms and lineages, including cicadas, barnacles, the Pancrustacea, and viruses like HIV-1.
“I am delighted to take on the role of EiC at Systematic Entomology because it is an exciting time to be working in the field of insect systematics, and I want to play a larger role in it. When I first began graduate school, I was sequencing single genes using Sanger sequencing. Now, due to new technologies, we can sequence many genomes in a day; therefore, we are not data limited, and I am excited to see how our community use these data to transform the insect tree of life and the questions they aim to answer.”
– Chris Owen
Emmanuel Toussaint
Geneva Natural History Museum, Switzerland
Emmanuel focuses his work on the taxonomy, systematics and evolutionary history of diving, ground and tiger beetles as well as butterflies (mostly skippers and brush-footed butterflies). He relies on both traditional genomics and more recently introduced museomics to build robust evolutionary datasets, also taking advantage of the untaped potential inherent to natural history collections. His lab develops different projects, for instance: to understand population genomics of endangered or endemic species; to study the phylogeography of recent mountain or island radiations; or to reconstruct large-scale phylogenetic trees to understand the evolution of insects through space and time.
“I am glad to join the SYEN editorial board to continue the fantastic job started by earlier members and to help developing the journal further especially with respect to ethical publishing, broader impact and academic excellence.”
– Emmanuel Toussant
Systematic Entomology is focuses on publishing research papers concerning insect, arachnid and myriapod systematics, phylogenetics, and integrative taxonomy (excluding acari).
