Norman Dronen

Dr. Norman Dronen obtained his Ph.D. in Zoology (Parasite Ecology) from New Mexico State University in Las Cruces, New Mexico, and has attended multiple research stations for broad training in freshwater invertebrate zoology, marine biology, parasitology and ichthyology. Dr. Dronen has been an invited research scientist to China, Egypt, Mexico, London and Nebraska, USA, for various projects in parasite ecology and genetics. He joined the former Department of Wildlife and Fisheries Sciences in 1997 and currently serves as an associate editor at Zootaxa.

Parasite ecology

The lab’s research has historically emphasized parasite ecology and systematics of all classes of vertebrate hosts as well as invertebrate groups. Areas of general interest have been host/parasite population dynamics, utilization of trophic structures by helminthic parasites, biodiversity, systematics, comparative morphology, experimental life cycle determinations and descriptions, epidemiology and genetics. Dr. Dronen’s lab has provided opportunities for many students to use multidisciplinary approaches to answer critical questions in parasite systems.

The Laboratory of Parasitology maintains an active national and international collaborative program including research projects in China, Ukraine, India, Iraq, Japan, Egypt, South America, France and USA. This includes multiple zoological parks worldwide (e.g. Lincoln Park Zoo, Parc Zoologique de Montpellier, Philadelphia Zoo, Audubon Zoo, and Caldwell Zoo).

Karar, Yasser F. M., Charles K. Blend, Refaat M. A. Khalifa, Hemely Abdel-Shafy Hassan, Hoda S. Mohamadain and Norman O. Dronen. (2019) Re-examination of the phylogenetic relationships within the Gyliauchenidae Fukui, 1929 (Digenea) based on morphological and molecular evidence with a proposal for Paragyliaucheninae n. subfam. and a description of Flagellotrema convolutum Ozaki, 1936, Systematic Parasitology, https://doi.org/10.1007/s11230-019-09868-6.

Blend, Charles K., Norman O. Dronen and Howard W. Armstrong. (2019) Occurrence of PodocotyleDujardin, 1845 (Opecoelidae, Podocotylinae) in three species of deep-sea macrourids from the Gulf of Mexico and Caribbean Sea with an updated key to species and host-parasite checklist, Zootaxa, http://dx.doi.org/10.11646/zootaxa.4638.4.3.

Garner, Kelsey L.*, Essa T. Mohammed, Charles K. Blend, Majid Bannai and Norman O. Dronen. (2019) Redescriptoin of Faustula gangetica (Srivastava, 1935) (Plagiorchiida: Faustulidae) in the Hilsa Shad, Tenualosa ilisha (Hamilton) (Clupeidae), from the Arabian Gulf off Irag, Comparative Parasitology, https://doi.org/10.1654/1525-2647-86.2.89.

Blend, Charles K., Yasser F.M. Karar and Norman O. Dronen. (2019) Case 3775 – Megaperidae Manter, 1934 and Apocreadiinae Skrjabin, 1942 (Platyhelminthes, Dienea): proposed re-establishment of precedence of the older family-group name, The Bulletin of Zoological Nomenclature, 76(1):23-27, https://doi.org/10.21805/bzn.v76.a008.

Sanchez, Sophia M., Liat Y. Goldstein and Norman O. Dronen. (2018) Diphyllobothrium stemmacephalum Cobbold, 1858 (Diphyllobothriidea) from common bottlenose dolphin, Tursiops truncatus (Montagu) from the Texas Gulf coast, USA, Zootaxa, https://doi.org.10.11646/zootaxa.4379.3.11.