Summary
Overview
Work history
Education
Skills
Languages
REFERENCES
Volunteer Experience
Affiliations
PUBLICATIONS
SCIENTIFIC COLLECTION & MUSEUM EXPERIENCES
Timeline
Generic
Maryam Fatahi

Maryam Fatahi

Weisenbach,Germany

Summary

Dedicated, enthusiastic, and hardworking professional with extensive experience in insect and plant museum collections, laboratory management, and wildlife and nature photography at the University of Guelph, the University of Hamburg, and the Canadian Wildlife Federation.

Overview

12
12
years of professional experience
2
2
years of post-secondary education

Work history

Yoga instructor

Mira Peace
Weisenbach, Germany
04.2025 - 01.2026
  • Worldwide online Kundalini yoga and meditation, breath work and mindfulness courses

Self employed

Airbnb
Ottawa, Canada
03.2018 - 01.2024

Experienced Airbnb host with a strong record of managing guest communications, property maintenance, and check-in/check-out processes to ensure high guest satisfaction.

Insect Lab Technician

Canadian Wildlife Federation
Ottawa, Canada
02.2023 - 05.2023

Insect Laboratory Technician with experience sorting bulk samples into higher taxonomic levels, identifying common species, preserving and handling identified specimens, databasing and documentation, specimen photography, and standardized sample handling.

Document Imaging Specialist

Centrum Für Naturkunde, Universität Hamburg
Hamburg, Germany
01.2020 - 12.2020
  • Digitizing
  • Photograph various specimens using a digital imaging system with stacking capabilities. Canon EOS 5DSR with a 65 mm or 100 mm lens and stacked with Zerene Stacker Canon EOS 6D with a 55 mm or 65 mm lens.
  • Image editing using Digital Photo Professional software
  • Ensure appropriate photo quality by resizing and retouching where needed
  • Uploading, correcting images, and image validation
  • Specimen positioning for optimal image capture
  • Databasing
  • Extensive experience in various projects, such as the Barcode of Life Database (BOLD)
  • Extensive experience database with the University of Hamburg Collection Portal
  • Documenting and databasing collections data
  • Updating specimen status in online and internal Microsoft databases
  • Insect sample preparation
  • Set up equipment and tools as needed for projects
  • Regularly handled delicate specimens while transferring from the collection to the imaging laboratory
  • Repaired insect specimens as needed
  • Regularly handled ethanol-preserved specimens from the wet collection to the imaging laboratory

Volunteer technician

Canadian National Collection of Insects
Ottawa, Canada
09.2017 - 03.2018

• Capture images from museum specimens + image editing as needed

• Official photographer for BugDay, Ottawa

Laboratory assistant

Biodiversity Institute of Ontario, University of Guelph
Guelph, Canada
01.2014 - 01.2017
  • Digitizing Digitized lab specimens
  • Photograph various specimens using Leica microscope camera or Canon EOS camera system. Image editing using ACDSee and Digital Photo Professional software. Ensure appropriate photo quality by resizing and retouching where needed
  • Uploading, correcting images and image validation
  • Stack photography
  • Databasing
  • Extensive experience with the Barcode of Life Database (BOLD), documenting collections data
  • Updating specimen status in online and internal Microsoft databases
  • Sample preparation
  • Set up equipment and tools as needed for projects.
  • Regularly handled delicate specimens while transferring from the collection to the imaging laboratory.
  • Repaired specimens as needed.
  • Regularly handled ethanol-preserved specimens from the wet collection to the imaging laboratory
  • Photo documented
  • The 6th International Barcode of Life Conference

Education

Degree - Fine Arts and Photography

Tabas Azad University
Tabas, Iran
09.1998 - 07.2000

Skills

  • Digitizing, databasing
  • Lab work with insect specimens
  • Personal and biology photography
  • Hospitality and customer service

Languages

English and Persian
Beginner
English
Fluent
Persian
Native

REFERENCES

References provided upon request.

Volunteer Experience

  • Canadian National Collection of Insects, volunteer, 2017-09, 2018-03, Capture images from museum specimens + image editing as needed, Official photographer for BugDay, Ottawa
  • Animal farm sanctuary, volunteer, 2016-04, present, Volunteer at animal farm sanctuary, Holly's Haven Wildlife Rescue, Penny Lane Farm Sanctuary

Affiliations

  • Nature photography, hiking, forest bathing, and cooking plant-based meals.

PUBLICATIONS

  • Zahiri R, Nazari V, Rajaei H, Wiemers M, Fatahi M, Seidel M, Dalsgaard T, Husemann M (2021) An illustrated catalogue of the type specimens of Lepidoptera housed in the Zoological Museum Hamburg (ZMH): Part II. superfamily Papilionoidea. Evolutionary Systematics 5(2): 193261. https://doi.org/10.3897/evolsyst.5.63435
  • Reza Zahiri, Gerhard Tarmann, Konstantin A. Efetov, Hossein Rajaei, Maryam Fatahi, Birgit Jaenicke, Thure Dalsgaard, Marcy Sikora, Matthias Seidel, Martin Husemann. An illustrated catalogue of the type specimens of Lepidoptera (Insecta) housed in the Zoological Museum Hamburg (ZMH): Part I. superfamilies Hepialoidea, Cossoidea, and Zygaenoidea. (2021). Evolutionary Systematics. 5 2021, 39–70 | DOI 10.3897/evolsyst.5.62003
  • Telfer A, Young M, Quinn J, Perez K, Sobel C, Sones J, Levesque-Beaudin V, Derbyshire R, Fernandez-Triana J, Rougerie R, Thevanayagam A, Boskovic A, Borisenko A, Cadel A, Brown A, Pages A, Castillo A, Nicolai A, Glenn Mockford B, Bukowski B, Wilson B, Trojahn B, Lacroix C, Brimblecombe C, Hay C, Ho C, Steinke C, Warne C, Garrido Cortes C, Engelking D, Wright D, Lijtmaer D, Gascoigne D, Hernandez Martich D, Morningstar D, Neumann D, Steinke D, Marco DeBruin D, Dobias D, Sears E, Richard E, Damstra E, Zakharov E, Laberge F, Collins G, Blagoev G, Grainge G, Ansell G, Meredith G, Hogg I, McKeown J, Topan J, Bracey J, Guenther J, Sills-Gilligan J, Addesi J, Persi J, Layton K, D'Souza K, Dorji K, Grundy K, Nghidinwa K, Ronnenberg K, Lee K, Xie L, Lu L, Penev L, Gonzalez M, Rosati M, Kekkonen M, Kuzmina M, Iskandar M, Mutanen M, Fatahi M, et al. (2015) Biodiversity inventories in high gear: DNA barcoding facilitates a rapid biotic survey of a temperate nature reserve. Biodiversity Data Journal 3: e6313. https://doi.org/10.3897/BDJ.3.e6313

SCIENTIFIC COLLECTION & MUSEUM EXPERIENCES

  • Canadian Museum of Nature, Botany Collections, The National Herbarium of Canada, Gatineau
  • Canadian National Collection of Vascular Plants, Central Experimental Farm, Ottawa
  • Centrum Für Naturkunde, Universität Hamburg, Hamburg, Germany

Timeline

Yoga instructor

Mira Peace
04.2025 - 01.2026

Insect Lab Technician

Canadian Wildlife Federation
02.2023 - 05.2023

Document Imaging Specialist

Centrum Für Naturkunde, Universität Hamburg
01.2020 - 12.2020

Self employed

Airbnb
03.2018 - 01.2024

Volunteer technician

Canadian National Collection of Insects
09.2017 - 03.2018

Laboratory assistant

Biodiversity Institute of Ontario, University of Guelph
01.2014 - 01.2017

Degree - Fine Arts and Photography

Tabas Azad University
09.1998 - 07.2000
Maryam Fatahi