Cynthia Ahearn

{{Short description|American echinodermologist (1952–2008)}}

{{Use mdy dates|date=April 2017}}

Cynthia Anne Gust Ahearn (October 17, 1952 – August 31, 2008) was an American echinodermologist and museum specialist at the Smithsonian Institution. She was responsible for the curation of the Smithsonian's extensive collection of echinoderms. An impactful individual in the field of echinodermology, Ahearn identified nearly 300,000 echinoderm specimen lots and had a nearly complete cataloged collection for the National Museum of Natural History Echinodermata. Ahearn was also responsible for several newsletters during her career, as well as the Discovery Cart, a segment on the Discovery Channel's Young Scientist program. In 2005, Ahearn was presented with the Natural History Museum's Public Outreach Award. Ahearn even had an echinoderm named after her in 2007.{{Cite web|url=http://invertebrates.si.edu/CAhearn.htm|title=SI NMNH IZ Cynthia Ahearn Obituary|website=invertebrates.si.edu|access-date=November 23, 2016}}

Early life

Ahearn was born in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Ahearn studied at the Dunbarton College of the Holy Cross in Washington, D.C. In 1973, Ahearn initiated her Smithsonian career, working as a museum specialist.

Career

After two decades of working at the Smithsonian, Ahearn was the editor, writer, and assembler of the International Echinoderm Newsletter from 1993 to 2003, as well as the editor of the Virtual Echinoderm Newsletter. Ahearn also cataloged nearly the entire collection of Echinodermata for the NMNH. Ahearn initiated the Discovery Cart program on the Discovery Channel and was presented with the National History Museum's Public Outreach Award. Ahearn was also known to give tours to all generations of students. She hosted international visitors to the Smithsonian Institution from many countries, and provided her taxonomic acumen to help salient scientific institutions. Among these are Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, the National Marine Fisheries Service, New Zealand's National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research (Wellington), the California Academy of Sciences (in San Francisco, California), the Museum of Comparative Zoology, the Museums Victoria (in Melbourne, Australia).{{Cite web|url=http://echinoblog.blogspot.com/2008/09/tribute-legacy-of-cynthia-ahearn.html|title=The Echinoblog: Tribute: The Legacy of Cynthia Ahearn|last=Chrism|date=September 1, 2008|website=The Echinoblog|access-date=November 23, 2016}}

Death

Around the time of her death, Ahearn had been doing research on shallow water, deep water, and Antarctic sea cucumbers.{{Cite web|url=http://www.gulfbase.org/person/view.php?uid=ahearn|title=GulfBase – Mrs. Cynthia A. Ahearn (1952–2008)|website=www.gulfbase.org|access-date=December 10, 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161222030945/http://www.gulfbase.org/person/view.php?uid=ahearn|archive-date=December 22, 2016|url-status=dead}} Ahearn was survived by her husband, John Ahearn and her daughter Tracey.{{Cite web|url=http://www.legacy.com/obituaries/washingtonpost/obituary.aspx?n=cynthia-a-ahearn&pid=116868822&fhid=4949|title=Cynthia A. Ahearn's Obituary |website=The Washington Post|access-date=November 23, 2016}}

Publications

Ahearn published many noteworthy works, including:

class="wikitable"

|Philippine Brittlestars (Echinodermata: Ophiuroidea) Described by R. Koehler (1922): A Corrected and Annotated List of Type Specimens

C. Ahearn

Smithsonian Institution Press

|1992

Catalog of the type specimens of seastars (Echinodermata: Asteroidea) in the National Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institution

C. Ahearn

Smithsonian Institution Press

|1995

Bathyal echinoderms of the Galápagos Islands

D.L. Pawson, C. Ahearn

Echinoderms, 41–46

|2000

Western Atlantic sea cucumbers of the order Molpadiida (Echinodermata: Holothuroidea)

D.L. Pawson, D.J. Vance, C. Ahearn

Bulletin of the Biological Society of Washington

|2001

Bathyal echmoderms of the Galapagos Islands

D.L. Pawson, C. Ahearn

Echinoderms 2000: Proceedings of the 10th International Conference, Dunedin ...

|2001

A review of pygal-furrowed Synallactidae (Echinodermata: Holothuroidea), with new species from the Antarctic, Atlantic and Pacific oceans

P.M. O’Loughlin, C. Ahearn

Memoirs of Museum Victoria 62 (2), 147–179

|2005

Equinodermos (Echinodermata) de las aguas mexicanas del Golfo de México [Echinoderms (Echinodermata) from the Mexican waters of the Gulf of Mexico].

A. Durán-González, A. Laguarda-Figueras, F.A. Solís-Marín, S.B.E. Buitrón, B.E.B. Sánchez, ...

Revista de Biología Tropical 53, 53–68

|2005

Equinodermos (Echinodermata) del Caribe Mexicano [Echinoderms (Echinodermata) of the Mexican Caribbean].

A Laguarda-Figueras, F.A. Solís-Marín, A. Durán-González, C. Ahearn, ...

Revista de Biología Tropical 53, 109–122

|2005

Equinodermos (Echinodermata) del Golfo de California, México

F.A. Solís-Marín, A. Laguarda-Figueras, A. Durán-González, C. Ahearn, ...

Revista de Biología Tropical 53, 123

|2005

Echinoderms (Echinodermata) from Central America Caribbean.

J.J. Alvarado, F.A. Solís-Marin, C. Ahearn

Revista de Biología Tropical 56, 37–55

|2008

Antarctic and Sub-Antarctic species of Psolidium Ludwig (Echinodermata: Holothuroidea: Psolidae)

P.M. O’Loughlin, C. Ahearn

Memoirs of Museum Victoria 65, 23–42

|2008

Equinodermos (Echinodermata) del Caribe Centroamericano

J.J. Alvarado, F.A. Solís-Marín, C. Ahearn

Revista de Biología Tropical 56 (Suppl 3), 37–55

|2008

Echinoderm (Echinodermata) diversity in the Pacific coast of Central America

J.J. Alvarado, F.A. Solís-Marín, C. Ahearn

Marine Biodiversity 40 (1), 45–56

|2010

Deep-sea fauna of European seas: An annotated species check-list of benthic invertebrates living deeper than 2000 m in the seas bordering Europe. Ophiuroidea

I.S. Smirnov, D. Piepenburg, C. Ahearn, K. von Juterzenka

Invertebrate Zoology 11 (1), 192–209

|2014

References