Dr David Yeates completed his undergraduate training and PhD at the University of Queensland and was Roosevelt Postdoctoral Fellow with Dr David Grimaldi at the American Museum of Natural History 1989-1992. He was Schlinger Postdoctoral Fellow at the Australian National Insect Collection in 1993. He took up an academic position at the University of Queensland from 1994-2000. In 2001 he accepted the position as Research Scientist at the Australian National Insect Collection (CSIRO, Canberra), and became Director of the Collection in 2012. He is an Adjunct Professor at the Australian National University and became Schlinger Fellow at the ANIC in 2005. David has spent most of his research career studying the systematics of true flies (Diptera). With students and colleagues he works on the taxonomy and systematics of Australian flies, and on the higher-level relationships of flies and their relatives.