Photo: Linda Hitchcock
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ABOUT ME
I am a biologist turned writer. After growing up in Australia, I received a Ph.D. at the University of London, England, and had a career as an entomologist before obtaining an MFA at the University of Arizona where I am currently a Regents' Professor Emerita.
I have published over two hundred scientific papers and books and several popular biology articles. I have published poems and essays in a variety of literary journals and self-published two non-fiction books. I have also self-published three children books with Linda Hitchcock and currently have a new book in press - Six Legs Walking. |
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Reviews of 'Six Legs Walking' by Compulsive Reader, First Person Naturalist, & Entomologist’s Gazette
Praise for 'Six Legs Walking': "[My husband] and I are in the midst of reading it now. Happily, it was easy to purchase through Amazon in France. What can I say? Hope Jahren sure can write but Liz Bernays leads by kilometers! Molting insects are indeed, sheer poetry but capturing that poetry in words is a feat only Liz has accomplished. And somehow she has closed the chasm in scientific memoirs like none other between crude but hilariously gerbil-like human behaviors before the #Metoo era and the questions about insects her scientific efforts contributed to understanding." Valery Terwilliger Professor (Adjunct), Department of Archaeology, Simon Fraser University, Burnaby, British Columbia, Canada “I want to thank you for publishing Six Legs Walking. I just finished reading your wonderful book. The book happily took me back to the days I was working on my Masters, PhD, and postdoctoral research. I remembered the incredible camaraderie and how hard we all worked and played. I was also intrigued with the biological aspects of the book. As a fisheries biologist I know very little of insects and the like, although I have a passion for photographing them. You have an unusual talent of being a renowned scientist and very talented author." Bruce Taubert Author of 'Wild in Arizona: Photographing Arizona's Wildlife' "From the opening page—a nine-year-old Elizabeth in her parents’ garden—this delightful book is a nonstop soliloquy and homage to the beauty and wonder of insects and lifelong dedication to one’s true passions. Bernays’ childhood fascination with bugs seems all-consuming, and at the age of 11 she is already racing rhinoceros beetles and extracting silk from moth cocoons collected in a neighbor’s yard. And by the time she turns 13 she’s developed a special enthusiasm for grasshoppers and Lepidoptera, a zeal that stays with her through her entire academic career (and over 200 scientific publications). I found the use of insect biology terms as chapter titles for Bernays’ own life story especially charming. The chapter “Molting,” for example, tells of her transformation from child to adult (and falling in love for the first time). And like many insects, Elizabeth leads a migratory life, traveling the world in search of intellectual and emotional adventure. Readers can take many things from this autobiography, including the dedicated pursuit of one’s passion, the hard work and joy that accompanies a career in science, and the shear wonder of the insect world." Rick C. Brusca Author of 'Invertebrates' (Oxford University Press) and 'In the Land of the Feathered Serpent' |
Order 'Six Legs Walking':
Amoreuxia
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Staghorn cactus flowering.
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Aster flower with bee pollinator.
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LONGER BIOGRAPHY
I was born in Chinchilla, Queensland, and grew up in Brisbane where I become enchanted with plants and insects. At the University of Queensland I studied zoology, botany and entomology, after which I began a bohemian year mostly in London, England, and then taught high school biology in the East End of London. There I had fun with cockney humor and rhyming slang, while also obtaining a MS in Entomology at London University. This led to a Ph.D. in Entomology and then a job with the British government. I worked in several African countries and in India in between periods of research in the London-based laboratories.
After thirteen years of work as a British government scientist I became a professor of Entomology at the University of California Berkeley, and spent wonderfully happy years there where I was intellectually invigorated and socially converted to the hitherto unknown “American way.” All of this with my soul mate, Reg Chapman.
Finally, Reg and I were offered jobs at the University of Arizona: I came as head of the department of Entomology, Reg as a professor in Neurobiology, and so began many years of fruitful collaborative research, and a love affair with the Sonoran desert.
After Reg died, I turned my efforts more towards writing and obtained a Master of Fine Arts in creative writing. I explore the natural world, the meaning of experience, the strangeness of nostalgia in the form of memoir, but also the meaning of home and art, and the importance of sharing our lives with the rest of the living world.
After thirteen years of work as a British government scientist I became a professor of Entomology at the University of California Berkeley, and spent wonderfully happy years there where I was intellectually invigorated and socially converted to the hitherto unknown “American way.” All of this with my soul mate, Reg Chapman.
Finally, Reg and I were offered jobs at the University of Arizona: I came as head of the department of Entomology, Reg as a professor in Neurobiology, and so began many years of fruitful collaborative research, and a love affair with the Sonoran desert.
After Reg died, I turned my efforts more towards writing and obtained a Master of Fine Arts in creative writing. I explore the natural world, the meaning of experience, the strangeness of nostalgia in the form of memoir, but also the meaning of home and art, and the importance of sharing our lives with the rest of the living world.
On the beach in Queensland, Australia.
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In the Sonoran Desert with my cat, Bowtie.
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I live in historic downtown Tucson with my wife, Linda Hitchcock, our Labrador, Bandit, and our two cats, Bowtie and Monkey. The wilderness though, is essential for me so we travel a lot, and I like to get out and walk in the wild places, specially in Arizona, with its great diversity of geography, flora and fauna. I stop to examine and photograph the plants and animals, to watch insect behavior and listen to the birds sing.
I have been involved in surveying and photographing flowering plants in the Empire Mountains with Dr. Margaret Kidwell, and banding hummingbirds with Dr. Susan Wethington in Patagonia. For several years I worked with Tucson Unified School district to provide workable laboratory experiments for primary school students.
I have been involved in surveying and photographing flowering plants in the Empire Mountains with Dr. Margaret Kidwell, and banding hummingbirds with Dr. Susan Wethington in Patagonia. For several years I worked with Tucson Unified School district to provide workable laboratory experiments for primary school students.
Desert paintbrush.
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Gramma grass.
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