Hussam Zaher

Hussam El Dine Zaher (born 17 September 1965) is a Brazilian biologist and paleontologist.

Biography Zaher began his studies in 1985 at the Faculty of Humanities of Colégio Pedro II in Rio de Janeiro, graduating in 1989 with a bachelor's degree in biological sciences. In 1990, under the supervision of Alain Dubois, he obtained a master's degree in vertebrate evolution at the Université Pierre et Marie Curie in Paris, with the thesis La musculature adductrice de la mandibule de quelques Xenodontinae et ses implications phylogénétiques (serpentes: Colubridae). In 1994, also under Dubois, he received his Ph.D. from the Muséum national d’histoire naturelle with the dissertation Phylogenie des Pseudoboini et evolution des Xenodontinae sud-americains (Serpentes, Colubridae).

From 1997 to 1998, Zaher pursued postdoctoral studies at the Museu Nacional da Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro and at the American Museum of Natural History. In 2004, he completed his habilitation with the thesis Contribuições em anatomia, sistemática e paleontologia de Serpentes. That same year, he was appointed associate professor at the Museu de Zoologia da Universidade de São Paulo (MZUSP), where he curates the herpetological and paleontological collections and directs graduate studies in zoology at both the Universidade de São Paulo and the Universidade Estadual Paulista in Rio Claro.