Prof. Harvey joined Georgia Southern University in 1998 and retired in 2025.

— Biography from the 2025 Spring Commencement program —

Dr. Harvey received his BS (1981) from Stanford University and his PhD (1988) from the University of Arizona. Dr. Harvey received a National Science Foundation Postdoctoral Fellowship in Environmental Biology, a Smithsonian Postdoctoral Fellowship, and a Tilton Postdoctoral Fellowship in Systematics at the California Academy of Sciences. He then taught for a year at Swarthmore College as a visiting professor before becoming a Curator of Invertebrates at the American Museum of Natural History. In 1998, Dr. Harvey joined the faculty at Georgia Southern University. At the time of his retirement, he has provided 27 years of service to the university. Dr. Harvey taught more than 20 courses at Georgia Southern, covering a broad range of lectures, labs, studio courses, and seminars. He mentored 33 undergraduate research student projects including three Honors students, two NSF-REU students, and a Ronald McNair student scholar. Five MS Biology students completed their degrees under his direction. Dr. Harvey published 43 peer reviewed papers. While at Georgia Southern, he gave 13 invited presentations and 42 poster and oral presentations at professional meetings. Dr. Harvey’s professional interests are diverse; for example, in 2012 he simultaneously served as Curator of the Georgia Southern University Herbarium and President of the Georgia Entomological Society, and wrote a chapter on hermit crabs and their allies for the Altas of Crustacean Larvae. Dr. Harvey served as the department’s Web Content Manager and digital signage coordinator; this latter task included creating a digital biodirectory, for which he photographed over 300 faculty, staff, and graduate students since 2008. From 2008-2015 and starting again in 2021, Dr. Harvey was the Curator of the Georgia Southern University Herbarium, where he consolidated the collections, oversaw moving them to the new Biological Sciences building, and obtained an NSF grant to digitize the collections. His professional activities often straddled teaching, research and service; for example, his Invasive Species classes developed and implemented an Invasive Species Management Plan for the area around the Biological Sciences building and conducted class projects that led to formal research projects with both graduate and undergraduate students. Dr. Harvey also explored the interface between science and art; in collaboration with art faculty at Georgia Southern and Auburn Universities, he produced and installed multiple large murals highlighting different aspects of our local biodiversity, served as primary or sole curator for three exhibits at Georgia Southern University, and produced over 50 short biology-themed films for the Biological Sciences main lobby display. Several of his videos and wildlife photographs won awards and were shown in film festivals and exhibitions statewide. Dr. Harvey was active in departmental, college, and university committees, including chairing the departmental Communications committee, serving on the various COSM Awards committees for a total of 15 years, and serving on the University Honors Council for 12 years. He received the COSM Excellence in Service Award and the Center for Sustainability Green Eagle Award. Among his contributions to the profession, Dr. Harvey served as a Georgia Invasive Species Council board member, President of the Georgia Entomological Society, and Treasurer of The Crustacean Society. He served as a reviewer for over 50 journals, granting agencies, and professional competitions. Dr. Harvey received nearly $450,000 in external grant funding and nearly $132,000 in internal grant funding, and was Co-PI on an additional $242,000 grant from the Georgia Department of Education. The summation of his work makes his recognition as Professor Emeritus of Biology well-deserved.*