Tidbits, January 2013

Congratulations!
To Brian Swartz, who heads to New York to work on evolution education projects at the Howard Hughes Medical Institute.

To Sarah Werning, who received an Earth Sciences Postdoctoral Fellowship from the National Science Foundation, which she will begin next September at Stony Brook University.

To UCMP alum, Lorraine Casazza and her husband Tim on the arrival of their new daughter.

To UCMP, in partnership with the National Center for Science Education, on receipt of a $954,000 grant from the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation to develop a new web-based project focusing on the causes and consequences of global change.

And special congratulations to our new Ph.D., Dr. Maya deVries!

Welcome to new UCMP Research Associates
Robert Boessenecker, University of Otago, NZ
Jack Horner, Museum of the Rockies, Montana State University
Erin Meyer, California Ocean Science Trust
Ralph Molnar, Queensland University (retired)
Jim Parham, California State Fullerton
Greg Wilson, University of Washington

Welcome to new UCMP Museum Associates
Doug Clarke, Assistant Archivist, volunteer
Chuck Crumly, UC Press
Claire Englander, Assistant Archivist, volunteer
Eugenie Scott, Visiting Scholar, National Center for Science Education
Dave Strauss, Photographer, volunteer
Lisa Urry, Visiting Scholar, Mills College

Other news
On National Fossil Day (October 17), UCMP launched a new and improved Fossils in US National Parks website, featuring enhanced "searchability" and better fossil data.

UCMP was invited to develop a paleontology course for UC Berkeley's Osher Lifelong Learning Institute. Our six-week course will provide an opportunity to share current research, focusing on topics such as biostratigraphy, evolution, extinction, and new technologies that have advanced our understandings. Speakers for this course include: Mark Goodwin, Seth Finnegan, Emily Lindsey, Sarah Werning, Ashley Poust, Pat Holroyd, and Leslea Hlusko.

Jere Lipps, emeritus professor/curator, and UCMP alum Nick Pyenson, now at the Smithsonian Institution, have organized and will present a symposium at the upcoming AAAS meeting in Boston, Feb. 17, on "Evolution of Giants — The Great Whales." Six speakers will delve into the evolutionary history of these whales, development of migratory patterns, effects of sonar, and the history of whaling.

Get them started early on paleontology!

Tesla Monson (left) shares a dinosaur bone with Zelda and Zelda's mom, Sasha, at the 2012 Bay Area Science Festival.