How Cullen Edelman learned to love bats

When Cullen was 12 or 13, her mother invited Merlin Tuttle, the founder of the Austin-based Bat Conservation International, who was visiting to Houston to deliver a talk at the zoo to stay at their house. This sparked Cullen's interest in bats. The beautiful descendant of an oil baron worked for Bat Conservation International, and then earned her Ph.D. from Columbia with a dissertation about South American rainforest bats.

Cullen is the descendant of oilman Hugh Roy Cullen, and part of the sprawling family whose name seems to attach naturally to words like "Center," "Theater" and "Foundation." Cullen's mom, Beth Robertson, followed in her own mother's footsteps, throwing herself into the family tradition of good works. She served on gazillions of boards of directors, working to save the world through education, conservation and medical care but Cullen decided to go against the grain.

Once her mother complained about Cullen's long stay at a middle-of-nowhere research station in French Guiana and Cullen reminded her: "Mom, it was you who introduced me to bats. It's your fault."

Still,  her mother's influence was not completely lost. She serves on seven boards of directors as chair of the Cullen Trust for Health Care, and board member of the Houston Zoo, the Houston Arboretum and Nature Center, the Contemporary Art Museum of Houston, the University of Houston's Blaffer Art Museum, Houston Advanced Research Center and, Bat Conservation International.

Cullen continues to conduct bat research and attends international bat conferences. In 2009, she (with her adviser and another researcher) published a book to help biologists identify seeds found in bat guano in Central and South America and hopes to do similar research in Asia and Africa.

SOURCES
http://www.houstonchronicle.com/life/gray/article/Adventures-of-Cullen-Geiselman-Batgirl-4689468.php#/

http://ww2.odu.edu/ao/news/index.php?todo=details&id=16267