PS 2024 Short Course Speakers and Panelists

PS 2024 Short Course Home

Collecting Section Talk Speakers

  Corinne Myers
  Associate Professor, Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences
  University of New Mexico
  [email protected] 

Corinne Myers is a paleoecologist specializing in the biogeography of Late Cretaceous marine invertebrates. She also works in understanding the triggers and kill mechanisms associated with large extinction events in the Phanerozoic.

  Hunter Olson
  Ph.D. Student, Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences
  Stanford University
  [email protected] 

 

Hunter Olson is a PhD student in the Earth and Planetary Sciences Department at Stanford University, and his research focuses on how organic materials, like fossils, are preserved and represented in the rock record and how biases affect our interpretation of ecology and paleoenvironmental conditions through deep time. Hunter also works on tribal sovereignty issues surrounding Indigenous communities and geoscience/paleontological research within the United States.

  Jorge Vélez-Juarbe
  Associate Curator, Mammalogy
  Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County
  [email protected] 

 

Jorge Velez-Juarbe is the Associate Curator of Marine Mammals at the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County. His research focuses on the evolutionary history of marine mammals from across the Americas as well as the origins of the Greater Antillean vertebrate fauna.

Collections Session Talk Speakers

  Ashley Dineen
  Senior Museum Scientist of Invertebrates
  University of California Museum of Paleontology
  [email protected] 

 

Dr. Ashley Dineen (B.S., M.S., and Ph.D. University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee) is currently the Senior Museum Scientist of Invertebrates at the University of California Museum of Paleontology in Berkeley. She previously served the Paleontological Society as the Cordilleran Section Chair.

  Andy Farke
  Director
  The Raymond M. Alf Museum of Paleontology
  [email protected] 


Dr. Andy Farke is director of the Raymond M. Alf Museum of Paleontology at The Webb Schools in Claremont, California, where he leads a fieldwork and collections program that engages high school students in paleontology while also serving the scientific community and general public.

  Don Mikulic
 
Curator
  WEIS Earth Science Museum
  [email protected] 

 

Dr. Don Mikulic has served on the PS Collections Committee since 1996. He is also a corresponding member of the Subcommission on Geo-Collections of the International Union of Geological Sciences, International Commission on Geoheritage. His research examines the impact of climate-driven extinction events on the composition of Silurian trilobite associations, the preservation of exceptional biotas, and the development of reef environments.

 

Short Course Panelists

  Austin Hendy
  Assistant Curator, Invertebrate Paleontology
  Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County
  [email protected] 

Austin Hendy studies the biodiversity, biogeography and paleoecology of Cenozoic molluscan faunas. He has conducted research in many parts of the world, but especially the tropical Americas. He is also interested in bioinformatics and the application of natural museum specimens and data for K-12 education.

  Stan Finney
  Professor, Department of Earth Science
  California State University Long Beach
  [email protected] 


Stan Finney, Professor Emeritus at CSULB, has served as Chair of Ordovician Subcommission, Vice-Chair and Chair of International Commission on Stratigraphy, and Secretary General of the International Union of Geological Sciences.  His research initially focused on Ordovician graptolite biostratigraphy, which he has applied to addressing a diversity of geological problems that required extensive collecting on private and public lands. 

  Emily Lindsey
  Associate Curator and Excavation Site Director, Rancho La Brea
  Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County
  [email protected] 


Dr. Emily Lindsey is Associate Curator and Excavation Site Director at La Brea Tar Pits, Los Angeles, California.  Her research interests include the Pleistocene paleoecology of New World ecosystems and the interrelated nature of human actions, environmental changes, and extinctions.

  Lisa White
  Assistant Director, Education and Outreach
  University of California Museum of Paleontology
  [email protected] 

Lisa D. White is the Director of Education and Outreach at the UC Museum of Paleontology. Her background and research training is in diatom micropaleontology and biostratigraphy of Miocene Monterey Formation.

  Brian Huber
  Research Geologist, Curator of Foraminifera
  Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History
  [email protected] 

Brian Huber is a Curator of Foraminifera at the Smithsonian Institution's National Museum of Natural History. His main research interests include Cretaceous and Paleogene paleoclimate and paleoceanography; evolutionary dynamics and extinction of Cretaceous and Paleogene planktic foraminifera; biotic and paleoenvironmental changes across mid-Cretaceous Oceanic Anoxic Events.

  Leigh Anne Riedman
  Strategic Research Initiatives Associate, Science & Engineering
  University of California Santa Barbara
  [email protected] 


Leigh Anne Riedman is a Researcher in the Department of Earth Sciences and the Earth Research Institute at the University of California, Santa Barbara. Her research focuses on the origin, evolution and diversification of eukaryotes, and Paleoproterozoic through Tonian paleobiology more broadly.

  Susannah Porter
  Professor, Department of Earth Science
  University of California Santa Barbara
  [email protected] 

 

Susannah Porter is a Professor of Earth Science at the University of California, Santa Barbara. Her research focuses on the origin and evolution of eukaryotes, the evolution of skeletal biomineralization, and Cambrian small shelly fossils.

  Scott Wing
  Research Geologist, Curator of Paleobotany
  Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History
  [email protected] 

Scott Wing was born in New Orleans and grew up there and in North Carolina. His research focuses on ancient climate and plants and he has been curator of Mesozoic and Cenozoic fossil plants at the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History since 1984.

  Jansen Smith
  Assistant Professor, Swenson College of Science and Engineering
  University of Minnesota Duluth
  [email protected]   

 

Jansen Smith is a conservation paleobiologist with an interest in improving data infrastructure and (re)use practices in paleontology.

  Margaret Fraiser
  Directorate for Geosciences Program Director
  National Science Foundation
  [email protected] 

 

Dr. Margaret Fraiser joined the U.S. National Science Foundation as a permanent Program Director in the Sedimentary Geology and Paleobiology (SGP) program from AGU (American Geophysical Union), an international nonprofit supporting more than half a million advocates and professionals in the Earth and Space sciences, where she held the position of Director of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion. Prior to AGU, Dr. Fraiser was an Associate Professor in the Department of Geosciences at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee (UWM), an R1 doctoral university.

  Pat Holroyd
  Sr. Museum Scientist, Vertebrate Collections
  University of California Museum of Paleontology
  [email protected] 

 

 

Nigel Hughes
Professor, Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences
University of California Riverside
[email protected] 

Philip Gensler 
Regional Paleontologist NM, AZ, CA
Bureau of Land Management - New Mexico State Office
[email protected] 

 

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