'The Girl in the Red Boots' Has Retired

"The Girl in the Red Boots" has retired.

That would be UC Davis distinguished professor Lynn Kimsey,  director of the Bohart Museum of Entomology from 1990 until yesterday, Jan. 31, 2024.

Today, Feb. 1, is her first full day of retirement after 34 years of service to UC Davis (teaching, research and public service), and it also happens to be her birthday anniversary.

The Bohart Museum staff celebrated her birthday today. "I'm 71," she said. (And yes, it's okay to print that.) 

Why is she "The Girl in the Red Boots?"  A photograph of her at age 5, sitting on a fence and holding an insect net, graces the entrance to the Bohart Museum. Her boots are colorized red in the black and white photo.

Lynn grew up in El Cerrito as Lynn Siri and went on to receive two degrees in entomology from UC Davis: a bachelor's degree (1976) and a doctorate (1979). She joined the UC Davis faculty in 1989 following an appointment at Harvard.

The Bohart Museum, founded by UC Davis entomologist Richard "Doc" Bohart in 1946, began with only 400 insect specimens at its Briggs Hall location. Under Kimsey's tenure, it has grown to a global collection of eight million insect specimens in Room 1124 of the Academic Surge Building, 455 Crocker Lane, and is the seventh largest insect collection in North America. 

Kimsey, a recognized international authority on insect biodiversity, systematics and biogeography of parasitic wasps, urban entomology, civil forensic entomology, and arthropod-related industrial hygiene, is a past president of the International Society of Hymenopterists (2002-2004), and former member of the board of directors of the Natural Science Collections Alliance (2000 and 2001).  

The Pacific Branch, Entomological Society of Ameica (PBESA) singled her out for its highest honor, the C. W. Woodworth Award, in 2020. She received the PBESA Systematics, Evolution, and Biodiversity Award in 2014 and was a member of 'The Bee Team' that won the PBESA Outstanding Team Award in 2013. In recognition of her outstanding work, the UC Davis Academic Senate honored her with its Distinguished Scholarly Public Service Award in 2016. In 2023, the UC Davis College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences presented her with its "Exceptional Faculty Award." (See news story)

A popular administrator, Kimsey served as the vice chair of the UC Davis Department of Entomology in 2005-2006 and again in 2009-2010. She headed the department as interim chair in 2008-2009. 

We asked her today: "How is retirement?"

"Retirement is weird," Kimsey said. "Somehow nothing changes, but so many things change! I'm still going to work in the museum, sorting and identifying bugs, and answering questions, but I won't have to teach or do committee work."

Kimsey will continue to be the executive director of the Bohart Museum Society, and write and publish the newsletter.  No, she's not going to Disneyland (as some retirees comment). "I'm going to try to make a publishable form of my keys to the insects of California. I will still be doing the newsletters and information pages."

"Jason is taking over (as museum director), and I know where he lives," she quipped.

That would be arachnologist Jason Bond, whose office and lab are just down the hallway. He joined the UC Davis Department of Entomology and Nematology in 2018 as a professor and the Evert and Marion Schlinger Endowed Chair. The UC Davis College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences appointed him associate dean in 2021. He's also the president-elect of the American Arachnological Society. 

A retirement party for Lynn Kimsey is planned April 6, information pending. Husband, Bob, a forensic entomologist with the Department of Entomology and Nematology, plans to retire in June. 

Let's celebrate "The Girl in the Red Boots!"