PaleoFest 2013 Symposium - Speakers

Caleb Brown, University of Toronto

I am originally from northern British Columbia, Canada, and grew up in Alberta. I received by BSc and MSc from the University of Calgary. My Masters research investigated the diversity of small-bodied ornithopods in the Late Cretaceous of Canada. I am currently a PhD student with David Evans at the University of Toronto, researching the mode of horned dinosaur evolution in the Dinosaur Park Formation.  I have done fieldwork in Mongolia, China, Alberta, Saskatchewan and the Canadian sub-arctic. 

Christopher Brochu, University of Iowa

Christopher Brochu is originally from the Northeast. He obtained his BS from the University of Iowa in 1989 and PhD from the University of Texas in 1997. His dissertation research focused on the evolutionary relationships and taxonomy of living and extinct crocodylians. From 1998 through 2000, he was a postdoctoral research scientist at the Field Museum in Chicago, where he worked on the large T. rex skeleton ("Sue") currently on display there. Since 2001, he has been in the Department of Geoscience at the University of Iowa. His current research program explores various aspects of archosaur phylogeny and evolution, with particular emphasis on crocodyliforms, from diverse data sets.

Image Courtesy of Chris Brochu

Steve Brusatte, University of Edinburgh

Stephen Brusatte is a research fellow at the University of Edinburgh in Scotland, where he teaches geology and leads a research program focused on vertebrate anatomy, phylogeny, and evolution. At the end of 2012 he finished his PhD at Columbia University and the American Museum of Natural History in New York, where his dissertation research centered on theropod dinosaur phylogeny and the origin of birds. Steve, who grew up in central Illinois, also holds degrees from the University of Chicago and University of Bristol (UK). He has named over 10 new species of fossils, has written over 50 peer-reviewed scientific papers, is the author of four books (including the coffee table book Dinosaurs and the technical book Dinosaur Paleobiology), and is the lead paleontological consultant for the BBC's Walking With Dinosaurs global brand.

Image Courtesy of Steve Brusatte

Mike Burns, University of Alberta

Originally from Scranton, Pennsylvania, I completed my BSc in geology at Dickinson College in Carlisle, Pennsylvania. My work on ankylosaur osteoderms at the State Museum of Pennsylvania allowed me to confirm the validity of the species Glyptodontopelta mimus. My MSc in biology was done at the University of Alberta, also under Dr. Phil Currie, on the dermal armour of ankylosaurs, the armoured dinosaurs. Currently, I am a PhD student in biology working under Dr. Currie on growth and allometry in ankylosaurs at the University of Alberta. I have participated in the collection of dinosaur material in New Mexico, Alberta, and Mongolia. In 2011, I named, along with Dr. Robert Sullivan, Ahshislepelta minor, a small, enigmatic ankylosaur from the Late Cretaceous of New Mexico. At the University of Alberta’s Laboratory for Vertebrate Paleontology I have been active in public outreach programs, teaching animal physiology and systematics, and as a supervisor of our volunteer dinosaur fossil preparation program.

Image Courtesy of Mike Burns

Nicholas Campoine, University of Toronto

Nicolás Campione received his B.Sc. from Carleton University in Ottawa, where he completed his Honours Thesis on the specialized necks of horned dinosaurs. Nic then completed a Masters degree at University of Toronto in 2008 under the supervision of Robert Reisz, where he studied the anatomy of varanopids, Permian basal synapsids. Nic is now wrapping up his Ph.D. at the ROM with David Evans. His work investigates body mass scaling in living and extinct animals in order to empirically test body mass estimation methods used for dinosaurs and other extinct vertebrates. He aims to use these methods to test Cope’s Rule in the evolution of body size in ornithopod dinosaurs and understand the patterns of both dinosaurian diversity and body size leading up to the end-Cretaceous extinction event.

Image Courtesy of Nic Campoine

Thomas Carr, Carthage College and Dinosaur Discovery Center

Thomas D. Carr, PhD, is an Associate Professor of Biology at Carthage College (Kenosha, WI), where he has been teaching since 2004. He is also the Senior Scientific Advisor to the Dinosaur Discovery Museum (DDM) in downtown Kenosha; and he is the Director of the Carthage Institute of Paleontology, which is housed in the DDM. Thomas obtained his undergraduate degree at York University and his Master’s and Doctoral degrees at the University of Toronto.

 Thomas is best known for his work on the growth and evolution of tyrannosauroid dinosaurs, the lineage of giant meat-eaters that includes Tyrannosaurus rex. His approach to research is unique, where he uses cladistic analysis (a method used to recover evolutionary relationships) to reconstruct the growth series of tyrannosaurids. So far, he has published growth series of T. rex and Albertosaurus sarcophagus using that technique.
 During his time at Carthage College, Thomas has been involved in naming four new species of tyrannosauroids: Appalachiosaurus from Alabama, Alioramus altai from Outer Mongolia, Bistahieversor from New Mexico, and Teratophoneus from Utah. Thomas is presently finishing up the most detailed study ever undertaken on growth in T. rex, and he is working on a ‘Great Synthesis’ of tyrannosaurid growth and evolution.
 Thomas has an active field program, where he takes students and volunteers with him to collect dinosaur fossils from southeastern Montana in exposures of the Hell Creek Formation. The fossils are curated in the collections of the DDM.

Image Courtesy of Thomas Carr

Nathan Carroll, Montana State University

Nathan Carroll is a Master’s student investigating the pterosaur diversity of the Two Medicine Formation in Montana with Dr. Dave Varricchio at Montana State University. He is also the curator of the Carter County Museum in Ekalaka, MT. Nathan grew up in Ekalaka and got an early start in paleontology in high school by working with the field crews of the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County as they excavated a Tyrannosaurus rex just down the road from his family ranch. His undergraduate work at Montana State University has included assisting the Museum of the Rockies field crews in the Hell Creek, Judith River, and Two Medicine Formations, traveling to China to study dinosaur eggs, and scientific illustration. He is also actively involved in public outreach, using life-sized pterosaur puppets and presentations to increase science awareness.

Image Courtesy of Nathan Carroll

Brenda Chinnery, University of Texas at Austin

Brenda Chinnery received her Ph. D. from the Functional Anatomy and Evolution Program at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, with Dr. Dave Weishampel as her advisor. After a postdoc with Jack Horner at the Museum of the Rockies, Montana State University, she began teaching at the University of Texas, Austin in the School of Biological Sciences. Currently she teaches anatomy and general biology courses at UT and at Austin Community College. Her research involves the evolutionary history and paleobiogeography of ceratopsian dinosaurs, and the systematics and faunal diversity of non-mammalian vertebrates during the middle Eocene.

Image Courtesy of Brenda Chinnery

Rodolfo A. Coria, Institute of Paleobiology and Geology at theNational University of Rio Negro, Argentina

Rodolfo A. Coria, Ph.D, was born in Trelew City, Chubut Province, Patagonia, Argentina. He is Professor at the National University of Río Negro, Argentina and Director of the Institute of Paleobiology and Geology of that university. He was Director ad honorem of Museo Carmen Funes de Plaza Huincul (1996-2007), State Paleontologist of Neuquén Province, and scientific researcher of the National Council of Science in Argentina. He has written over 70 technical articles, one popular book (In Spanish and Italian), and several chapters in dinosaur books.

He has participated in explorations in Patagonia, USA, Canada, Mongolia and Antarctica. His main discoveries (in cooperation with several colleagues) include almost 10 new species of dinosaurs, like Argentinosaurus huinculensis (the biggest dinosaur ever recorded), Giganotosaurus carolinii (the largest meta-eating dinosaur), the only monospecific burial of carnivorous dinosaur recorded in the Southern Hemisphere, and the largest dinosaur nesting site with sauropod eggs and embryos. He has been grantee of National Geographic Society and Dinosaur Society. The Time Magazine included him among the 50 Latin American Leaders for the New Millennium. He is member of Society of Vertebrate Paleontology, Palentological Society. He was President of the Argentinean Paleontological Asociation in 2004-2005

Image Courtesy of Rodolfo A. Coria

Phillip Currie, University of Alberta

Philip J. Currie professor, Canada Research Chair at the University of Alberta in the Department of Biological Sciences, former Curator of Dinosaurs at the Royal Tyrrell Museum of Palaeontology, and Adjunct Professor University of Calgary. He got his BSc at the University of Toronto in 1972, and his MSc and PhD at McGill in 1975 and 1981. He is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada (1999) and a member of the Explorers Club (2001). He received an honorary degree from the University of Calgary in 2008. He has published more than 160 scientific articles, 140 popular articles and twenty books, focussing on the growth and variation of extinct reptiles, the anatomy and relationships of carnivorous dinosaurs, and the origin of birds. Fieldwork connected with his research has been concentrated in Alberta, Argentina, British Columbia, China, Mongolia, Indonesia, South Africa, and the Arctic and Antarctica. Sir Frederick Haultain Award (for significant contributions to science in Alberta), 1988. American Association of Petroleum Geologists, Michel T. Halbouty Human Needs Award, 1999. The Michael Smith Award in 2004. ASTech Award in 2006. The Alberta Order of Excellence, 2010. The Explorers Club (Canadian Chapter) Stefansson Medal, 2011. The Explorers Club Medal, and the Royal Canadian Geographical Society Gold Medal, 2012. Since 1986, he has supervised or co-supervised 32 MSc and PhD students at the Universities of Alberta, Calgary, Copenhagen and Saskatchewan. Currently he is supervising nine (2 undergrad, 2 MSc, 4 Phd and one postdoctoral) students at the University of Alberta. He has given hundreds of popular and scientific lectures on dinosaurs all over the world, and is often interviewed by the press.

Image Courtesy of Philip J. Currie

Mike D'Emic, Stony Brook University

Mike was born and raised in New York's Hudson Valley, and was fascinated by paleontology from an early age. After graduating from Boston University in 2006, he completed his Master's and Doctorate degrees at the University of Michigan, focusing on the early evolution and bone microstructure of titanosaur sauropod dinosaurs. Mike was a visiting Assistant Professor at Georgia Southern University after graduation, and has recently begun a position as a Research Instructor at Stony Brook University's School of Medicine.

Image Courtesy of Mike D'Emic

David A. Eberth, Royal Tyrrell Museum

Dr. David A. Eberth is a paleontologist and geologist at the Royal Tyrrell Museum in Alberta, Canada. He studies ancient environments of fossil-bearing rocks, and has participated in field projects around the world. His specialties include the study of ancient physical environments, the age of the rocks, and how ancient plants and animals are preserved. 

He also has a deep interest in the causes for the revival of American creationism, and how a scientifically-advanced society can reject overwhelming evidence for evolution, deep time, plate tectonics, and other well established scientific 'facts.' Dave's research sheds light on Earth's ancient environments and how advances in the earth sciences impact society and culture.

Dave has written and presented more than 100 papers in a scientific career that, so far, spans 32 years. He has hosted symposia at the Royal Tyrrell Museum, and is the co-editor and a contributor for two recently published scientific books on bonebeds and horned dinosaurs. He is now co-editing a third book about duck-billed dinosaurs.

Image Courtesy of David A. Eberth

Michael J. Everhart, Sternberg Museum of Natural History at Fort Hays State University

Michael J. Everhart is a 1969 graduate of Wichita State University. After his military service (U.S. Army) he returned to Wichita State for his Masters Degree (1973).  He worked for the Health Department for 12 years and served as the Environmental Health Director from 1981-1985. He was hired as the Environmental Affairs manager at the Boeing Company, where he retired after 17 years. He has been an Adjunct Curator of Paleontology at the Sternberg Museum of Natural History, Fort Hays State University, Hays, Kansas since 1998.
Mike is an expert on Late Cretaceous marine fossils of central and western Kansas, and on the history of paleontology in Kansas. In addition, he has worked with the "T rex Sue" exhibition at the Sternberg Museum in Hays, and Exploration Place in Wichita. Mike was a contributor to the BBC documentary "Chased by Sea Monsters" and served as one of the senior science advisers on the 2007 National Geographic IMAX film, Sea Monsters. His work has been featured in five made for television videos on the History and Discovery channels.
Mike is the author of “Sea Monsters: Prehistoric Creatures of the Deep” (National Geographic, 2007) and “Oceans of Kansas – A Natural History of the Western Interior Sea” (Indiana University Press, 2005). The Sea Monsters book was awarded in 2008 by the American Library Association, and both titles were honored as Kansas Notable books. In addition, Mike has also written many papers describing the fossils of the Smoky Hill Chalk, including the 2005 naming of a new species of a marine reptile (mosasaur) from Kansas called Tylosaurus kansasensis. Most recently, Mike and co-author Alyssa Bell described two examples of the oldest bird fossils in North America, based on specimens that originated from Russell County, Kansas.
He is the creator and webmaster of the educational “Oceans of Kansas Paleontology” web site: www.oceansofkansas.com which has been on the Internet since December, 1996.  He served as an editor of the Transactions of the Kansas Academy of Science from 2006 to 2011 and was President of the KAS in 2005. Mike is currently a speaker for the Kansas Humanities Council.

Image Courtesy of Michael Everhart

Andrew Farke, Raymond M. Alf Museum of Paleontology

Dr. Farke received a B.Sc. in Geology from the South Dakota School of Mines and Technology in 2003, and completed his Ph.D. in Anatomical Sciences at Stony Brook University in 2008. He joined the staff at the Alf Museum in June 2008, as Augustyn Family Curator of Paleontology. Dr. Farke’s research interests primarily focus on the evolution and functional morphology of the ceratopsians, or horned dinosaurs. As such, he has used a variety of techniques and taxa in pursuit of these goals. Interests in this realm include paleopathology, finite element analysis and other biomechanical methods, morphometric and statistical techniques, general descriptive morphology and phylogenetic analysis. In order to better understand aspects of ceratopsian cranial anatomy, much of Dr. Farke’s dissertation research focused on the evolution and function of the frontal sinuses within the skulls of horned mammals. Presently, he is co-PI on an NSF-sponsored grant with Scott Sampson, Cathy Forster, and Mark Loewen, which focuses on documenting the ceratopsid evolutionary radiation. Beyond ceratopsians, Dr. Farke is interested in Late Cretaceous ecosystems in North America and Gondwana. After several seasons of participation in the Mahajanga Basin Project of northwestern Madagascar, he initiated the Ambilobe Basin Project, which aims to recover vertebrate remains from the Late Cretaceous of northernmost Madagascar. He has also conducted fieldwork in the Almond Formation of Wyoming (in collaboration with University of Utah), the Fox Hills Formation of South Dakota, and the Kaiparowits Formation of southern Utah, among other areas in the western United States.

Image Courtesy of Andy Farke

Dener Fowler, Montana State University

Denver Fowler is a field-oriented paleontologist from England. He has a geology degree from the University of Durham, a Paleobiology master’s from the University of Bristol, and is currently pursuing a PhD under Prof Jack Horner at the Museum of the Rockies, Montana State University. His research specializes in dinosaur behavior, functional morphology, and understanding how stratigraphy (time) affects our interpretation of paleobiology. Denver has also worked as a specialist researcher for Impossible Pictures; the TV production company responsible for the “walking with…” series of paleontology documentaries.

Image Courtesy of Denver Fowler

Liz Freedman, Montana State University

Liz Freedman is a PhD student of Dr. Jack Horner's at the Museum of the Rockies, Montana State University. She received her undergraduate degree in Geology from Franklin and Marshall College in Lancaster, Pennsylvania. Liz's doctoral research focuses on the growth and evolution of hadrosaurs in the Late Cretaceous Judith River Formation of Montana. She also studies the predatory behavior of raptor birds and raptor dinosaurs with fellow PhD students Denver Fowler and John Scannella.

Image Courtesy of Liz Freedman

Mark Goodwin, University of California Museum of Paleontology at Berkeley

B.A. Paleontology University of California, Berkeley
M.A. Paleontology University of California, Berkeley
Ph.D. Geology University of California, Davis

Dr. Goodwin is the Assistant Director for Collections and Research in the University of California Museum of Paleontology at Berkeley. His research focuses on aspects of dinosaur growth and behavior, stable isotope geochemistry and the chemical and structural composition of fossils to better understand diagenesis, fossilization, and the preservation of a paleobiological signal in the fossil record. Goodwin regularly conducts fieldwork in the Upper Cretaceous of Montana, and the Late Triassic and Jurassic of Ethiopia where his team found the first record of Mesozoic mammals and dinosaurs in the Blue Nile Gorge, Ethiopia. Goodwin uses high-resolution computer tomography and histology in his research, and with scientists at the Advanced Light Source, Lawrence Berkeley Lab, is examining the micron-scale preservation and chemistry of dinosaur soft-tissues, and biomineralization in modern and fossil whale baleen. He is often called upon to identify and collect fossils found in the San Francisco Bay area. Goodwin collaborates closely with his long-term colleague Jack Horner and is a Research Associate of the Museum of the Rockies.

Image Courtesy of Mark Goodwin

Thomas Holtz, University of Maryland

Dr. Thomas R. Holtz, Jr., is a dinosaur paleontologist and senior lecturer of vertebrate paleontology in the Department of Geology at the University of Maryland, College Park, USA. His primary research specialty is the origin, evolution, functional anatomy, and paleobiology of carnivorous dinosaurs, and most especially of the Tyrannosauroidea (tyrant dinosaurs). He has also published on the effect of plate tectonics on dinosaur evolutionary history and distribution.

Dr. Holtz received his bachelors in Earth & Planetary Science at Johns Hopkins University and his Ph.D. in Geology & Geophysics at Yale University, studying under Prof. John Ostrom. His doctoral work examined the phylogeny of theropod dinosaurs and the evolution of running adaptations within this group. In the early 1990s Dr. Holtz worked in the laboratory of paleoclimatologist Dr. Thomas Cronin of the U.S. Geological Survey’s Branch of Paleontology & Stratigraphy, where he assisted in paleoclimate and paleoceanographic research.

In 1994 he joined the faculty of the Department of Geology at the University of Maryland, where he teaches courses on dinosaurs, on general paleontology, on historical geology, and on global change. He has received several teaching awards at the University. He is the creator and director of the former Earth, Life & Time program and of the current Science & Global Change programs (two-year honors programs for 1st and 2nd year undergraduates.) From 2006-2009 he was the president of Paleontological Society of Washington and is a Research Associate of the Department of Paleobiology of the Smithsonian Institution’s National Museum of Natural History.

Recent works include several chapters in University of California Press’ The Dinosauria, Second Edition and in the forthcoming second edition of the University of Indiana Press’ The Complete Dinosaur. In addition to his technical publications, Dr. Holtz has written several books for children, most recently Dinosaurs: The Most Up-To-Date Encyclopedia for Dinosaur Lovers of All Ages (Random House; see http://www.geol.umd.edu/~tholtz/dinoappendix for updates). Additionally, he has been a consultant on numerous TV documentaries (including BBC’s Walking with Dinosaurs, the History Channel’s Jurassic Fight Club, and Discovery Channel’s Prehistoric: Washington, D.C., Monsters Resurrected, and Dinosaur Revolution), and several museum exhibits.

Image Courtesy of Thomas Holtz

Yoshitsugu Kobayashi, Hokkaido University Museum

Yoshitsugu Kobayashi (born in 1971 in Fukui, Japan) received his B.S. degree in geology from University of Wyoming in 1995 and his M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in vertebrate paleontology from Southern Methodist University, Texas, in 1998 and 2004, respectively. He is an associate professor at the Hokkaido University Museum at Hokkaido University, where he has served on the faculty since 2006. He is also an adjunct associate professor at the Science Department of Natural History Sciences at Hokkaido University, Japan, and an invited associate professor at the Osaka University Museum at Osaka University, Japan. His areas of interest are in Cretaceous dinosaurs, including ornithomimosaurs, therizinosaurs, and iguanodontians. He currently has research projects in Mongolia, Alaska, China, and Japan.

Image Courtesy of Yoshitsugu Kobayashi

Eva B. Koppelhus, University of Alberta

Eva B. Koppelhus is a Research Associate at the Department of Biological Sciences of the University of Alberta, where she works together with Dr. Philip Currie. Before October 2005, she spent eight years as a research assistant for Dr. Currie at the Royal Tyrrell Museum of Palaeontology. She did one postdoctoral position at the Royal Tyrrell Museum of Palaeontology in 1996 and 1997, following a two-year postdoctoral fellowship at the Greenland Geological Survey in Copenhagen, Denmark. As a palynologist educated at the University of Aarhus in Denmark, she worked for more than ten years at the Geological Surveys of Denmark and Greenland, her research focused on floras of the Triassic, Jurassic and Cretaceous geological periods. During her postdoctoral position at the Tyrrell Museum, she worked with material from the Centrosaurus bonebeds in Dinosaur Provincial Park to determine more about the plants associated with this dinosaur. Her research interest is now concentrating on floras of the Upper Cretaceous of Northwest America. She primarily works with material from dinosaur bearing formations such as the Pachyrhinosaur bonebed in Pipestone Creek and the Albertosaurus bonebed in Dry Island Park. Her work with Dr. Currie has taken her to all corners of the world, including Antarctica, Argentina, Australia, China, Europe, Indonesia, Japan, Madagascar, Mongolia, New Zealand, South Korea, South Africa and the USA.

Image Courtsey of Eva B. Koppelhus

Matthew Lamanna, Carnegie Museum of Natural History

Matthew C. (Matt) Lamanna is Carnegie Museum of Natural History’s first curator committed to dinosaur research since the early 20th Century. He received his B.Sc. from Hobart College in 1997 and his M.Sc. and Ph.D. from the University of Pennsylvania in 1999 and 2004, respectively. He has extensive paleontological field experience in Antarctica, Argentina, Australia, China, Egypt, and the western United States. In 2000, he co-led a research team that discovered Paralititan stromeri, one of the most massive dinosaurs that ever lived, in Egypt’s Bahariya Oasis. A film on the expedition, The Lost Dinosaurs of Egypt, debuted on the A&E Network in 2002. In 2006, Dr. Lamanna and a team of international researchers announced the discovery of dozens of beautifully-preserved fossils of the 115 million-year-old bird Gansus yumenensis in northwestern China. These specimens provided fresh evidence of how and when modern-style birds evolved from their dinosaurian ancestors. The expedition that uncovered these fossils was featured in The Science Channel’s documentary Rise of the Feathered Dragons, which premiered in February 2006. More recently, Lamanna served as the chief scientific advisor to Carnegie Museum of Natural History’s $36 million dinosaur exhibition, Dinosaurs in Their Time, which opened in June 2008. He lives in Seven Fields, PA, with his wife Mandi Lyon.

Image Courtesy of Matthew Lamanna

Mark Loewen, Natural History Museum of Utah

Bio on the way.

Junchang Lu, Institute of Geology at the Chinese Academy of Geosciences

Dr. Lu completed his PhD at Southern Methodist University. He is now a professor at the Chinese Academy of Geosciences, Institute of Geology. Dr. Lu's primary research foci lie with Mesozoic reptiles (pterosaurs and dinosaurs) and stratigraphy. At present, he has published at least 70 papers and three books on a variety of topics related to dinosaurs, pterosaurs, and stratigraphy.

Image Courtesy of Junchang Lu

Tyler Lyson, National Museum of Natural History

I was born and raised in the Marmarth ND/Baker MT region, right in the middle of the Hell Creek Formation. I've been looking for fossils my entire life. As a teenager I worked for various professors conducting research in the area. I went to a small liberal arts school, Swarthmore College, where I worked on the development of the turtle shell. I finished my Ph.D. in 2012 at Yale University where I worked on the origin of turtles and the origin of the turtle shell. I'm currently a Peter Buck postdoctoral fellow at the Smithsonian Institution.

Image Courtesy of Tyler Lyson

Ian Miller, Denver Museum of Nature and Science

Ian Miller is Curator of Paleontology and Director of Earth & Space Sciences at the Denver Museum of Nature & Science. He earned a PhD in geology and paleobotany at Yale University in 2007 and has been at DMNS since 2007. His research focuses on fossil plants and their applications for understanding ancient ecosystems and climate. He is presently working on projects in the Colorado Rockies, the Grand Staircase Escalante National Monument in Utah, and Madagascar. Dr. Miller leads the Snowmastodon Project.

Image Courtesy of Ian Miller

Michael Ryan, Cleveland Museum of Natural History

Michael Ryan is Head of the Department of Vertebrate Paleontology at the Cleveland Museum of Natural History. His research interests include dinosaur paleobiology of the Late Cretaceous with an emphasis on neoceratopsians, as well as placoderm and shark evolution in the Devonian Cleveland Shales. He has on-going research projects in Alberta, Mongolia and Greenland. Recent publications include the descriptions of the new horned dinosaurs Gryphoceratops, Unescoceratops, and Xenoceratops.

Image Courtesy of Michael Ryan

Scott Sampson, Utah Museum of Natural History

Scott Sampson is an internationally recognized dinosaur paleontologist, evolutionary biologist, author, educator, TV personality and serves as Research Curator at the Utah Museum of Natural History at the University of Utah. After receiving his Ph.D. in Zoology at University of Toronto he served as a research assistant at the American Museum of Natural History in New York City, spent five years as an Assistant Professor of Anatomy at New York College and had teaching positions at the University of Utah. Scott has conducted field research all over the world, including; Madagascar, Mexico, South Africa, Kenya, Zimbabwe and of course in the United States.

His current research focuses on the paleontology of Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument in southern Utah. This work has yielded abundant fossil of previously unknown dinosaur species. Scott has published numerous scientific papers, popular articles, and a new book Dinosaur Odyssey: Fossil Threads in the Web of Life. Scott has been seen regularly on several paleo-documentaries aired on the Discovery Channel, Science Channel and National Geographic. Scott is also the host (known as Dr. Scott) of the extremely popular PBS Children’s TV show, Dinosaur Train, which is beginning its 3rd season.
The TV Show, Dinosaur Train started in 2009 and was created by the Jim Henson Company. This animated show, stars a curious young Tyrannosaurus rex named “Buddy”. “Buddy” along with his dino-buddies, take the Dinosaur Train to meet, explore and have adventures with different dinosaur friends. The show introduces children to the building blocks of science with a fun and whimsical format. At the end of each segment, Dr. Scott (Scott Sampson) appears to go over the curriculum of the show in greater deal, often reinforcing what the actual paleontological research demonstrates. This show has been wildly popular with pre-school through 1st grade children and has received positive reviews from many family organizations. In September 2011, Dinosaur Train’s ratings landed it in the TOP 10 for children’s show after almost 2 million kids tuned in for a Dinosaur Train special. It is estimated that the Dinosaur Train is seen by over 9 million households every month.

Image Courtesy of Scott Sampson

Joe Sertich, Denver Museum of Nature and Science

Joe Sertich is Curator of Vertebrate Paleontology at the Denver Museum of Nature & Science. He received his B.S. in Geology and Biological Sciences from Colorado State University in 2004, his M.S. in Geology at the University of Utah in 2006, and his Ph.D. in Anatomical Sciences at Stony Brook University in 2011. His research focuses on dinosaurs and other archosaurs and their ecosystems during the Late Cretaceous. His field-based research is split between the Gondwanan continents of the southern hemisphere and western North America. He is one of the primary researchers on the Mahajanga Basin Project exploring the latest Cretaceous of Madagascar and has expanded the search for dinosaurs to older deposits across the island. He is also working in the Cretaceous of Antarctica and has several projects searching for the first latest Cretaceous dinosaurs of Africa, including work in northern Kenya and Egypt. In North America, he is currently working on projects in Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument, Utah and in Cretaceous deposits across the Rocky Mountain west.

Image Courtesy of Joe Sertich

Josh Slattery, University of South Florida

Joshua Slattery was born and raised in Cheyenne, Wyoming and received a BS in Geology and a minor in Zoology from the University of Wyoming. He became interested in paleontology and geology during high school when he began to actively collect fossils from the stratigraphic sequences in southeastern Wyoming and northern Colorado. During his time in college, he developed a passion for investigating the biological diversity and paleobiology of Late Cretaceous macroinvertebrate faunas. After graduating from college, he spent one year working for Uinta Paleontological Associates, Inc. of Vernal, Utah, monitoring sites (e.g., gas and petroleum pipelines, coal mines) in Wyoming and Colorado for paleontological resources endangered by energy development. He is currently a Ph.D. student at the University of South Florida working on an NSF-funded project examining the influence icehouse and greenhouse climatic modes have on evolutionary tempo of ammonites and bivalves in contrasting depositional settings (e.g., foreland basin vs. passive margin). In addition to this research, he is also interested in ammonites, inoceramid bivalves, marine faunal dynamics in the Western Interior Seaway and Gulf of Mexico, and shell-bed taphonomy. During his free time, he enjoys fossil and shell collecting, camping, hiking, visiting museums, and traveling.

Image Courtesy of Josh Slattery

Hand-Deiter Sues, National Museum of Natural History

Hans Sues first became interested in fossils when he was four years old. After receiving his Ph.D. in biology from Harvard University, he conducted research as a postdoctoral fellow at McGill University and the National Museum of Natural History of the Smithsonian Institution. In 1992, Hans became Curator of Vertebrate Paleontology at the Royal Ontario Museum in Toronto and joined the faculty of the Department of Zoology at the University of Toronto. In 1999, he was appointed Vice President of Collections & Research at the Royal Ontario Museum and later held similar senior management positions at the Carnegie Museum of Natural History in Pittsburgh and the National Museum of Natural History in Washington, DC. Hans is now Senior Scientist and Curator of Vertebrate Paleontology at the National Museum of Natural History.

His research program centers on terrestrial vertebrate diversity and faunal changes during the early Mesozoic and the evolutionary history of archosaurian reptiles including dinosaurs. Hans has been collaborating with a number of colleagues on studies of Mesozoic terrestrial faunas in the field and laboratory worldwide. He is the author of many scientific articles in leading peer-reviewed journals including Nature and Science and has co-authored, edited or co-edited a number of books on vertebrate paleontology and paleoecology. In recognition of his scientific contributions, Hans has been elected Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada and Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. Most recently, he received an Alexander von Humboldt Award for Excellence in Research and Teaching.

Hans is keenly interested in museum management and informal science education. A graduate of the Museum Management Institute, he has more than ten years of senior-level experience in museum management and frequently serves as a consultant and reviewer in the field. Hans loves sharing his enthusiasm for natural history in general and paleontology in particular through lectures, writing, and blogging.

Image Courtesy of Hans-Deiter Sues

Alan H. Turner, Stony Brook University

Alan Turner is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Anatomical Sciences at Stony Brook University where he teaches Human Anatomy in the medical school and graduate courses in phylogenetics and comparative methods. Alan received his BS from the University of Cincinnati in 2001, his MS from the University of Iowa in 2004, and his PhD at the American Museum of Natural History and Columbia University in 2008. His research program focuses on archosaur evolution, biogeography, and diversification during the Mesozoic and Cenozoic. Ongoing projects include examining the origin and radiation of neosuchian crocodyliforms, exploring the saurian reptile radiation in the Late Triassic of North America, and theropod evolution near the origin of birds. Alan is a principal researcher in the Theropod Working Group, as well as on the project excavating the Late Triassic Hayden Quarry near Ghost Ranch New Mexico, and on the Mahajanga Basin Project exploring the Late Cretaceous terrestrial ecosystem of Madagascar. He has named numerous species of fossil archosaur and his research has appeared on NOVA, NatGeo, the History Channel, and the IMAX film Dinosaurs Alive!

Image Courtesy of Alan Turner

Thomas E. Williamson, New Mexico Museum of Natural History and Science

Thomas E. Williamson (born 1963 in Golden Valley, Minnesota) attended the University of Massachusetts, Amherst attaining a BS in Geology (1986, cum laude) and a MS (Geology; 1989) and PhD (Earth and Planetary Science; 1993) from the University of New Mexico, Albuquerque. He has been a Curator of Paleontology at the New Mexico Museum of Natural History and Science, Albuquerque and an Adjunct Assistant Professor of Earth and Planetary Science at the University of New Mexico since 1994. Dr. Williamson works primarily on Late Cretaceous and Paleogene vertebrates of North America with an active field program that focuses on the geology and paleontology of the San Juan Basin of northwestern New Mexico. Dr. Williamson has described and named numerous species of dinosaurs and mammals, including two new species of pachycephalosaurs, three new species of tyrannosaurs, and ten new species of mammals. He has had one species of primate named after him. He has published over 60 research papers and has appeared on network television and radio shows including the Today Show, Discovery Channel, NBC Dateline, The Learning Channel, GEO, NPR, and CNN

Image Courtesy of Tom Williamson

Greg Wilson, University of Washington

Dr. Greg Wilson (born in 1973, in Kalamazoo, Michigan) is an Assistant Professor in Biology and Adjunct Assistant Professor in Earth Space and Sciences at the University of Washington and Adjunct Curator of Vertebrate Paleontology at the Burke Museum of Natural History and Culture. His brother is vertebrate paleontologist Jeffrey A. Wilson from the University of Michigan, and his wife is University of Washington paleobotanist Caroline A. E. Strömberg. Before joining the faculty at the University of Washington, he was a Curator of Vertebrate Paleontology at the Denver Museum of Nature & Science (2005-2007). He completed his doctorate from the University of California, Berkeley in 2004 and then served as a NSF postdoctoral fellow at the University of Helsinki. His research interests focus on early mammal evolution, diet reconstruction in recent and extinct mammals, paleobiogeography of early mammals, and the impact of the Cretaceous-Paleogene mass extinction event. He uses methods for quantitative analysis of diversity dynamics, biostratigraphy, dental morphology, phylogeny, and community structure. He has done extensive paleontological fieldwork in Niger, Ethiopia, India, Mexico, Colombia, and across the Western Interior of North America. His work has been published in prominent journals, such as Nature and Science, and supported by the National Geographic Society, National Science Foundation, United States Forest Service, and other agencies. He also co-founded an outreach program, the DIG Field School, which provides immersive field experiences to K-12 educators and brings scientific research to their classrooms

Image Courtesy of Greg Wilson