ANNOUNCEMENTS
First virtual Early Career Scientists Symposium attracts broad worldwide audience
After a year hiatus, it was a joy to finally hold the Early Career Scientists Symposium! One of the silver linings was our shift to a virtual platform, which allowed for nearly 600 international attendees to participate. Read more here.
Museum scientists: Prepare for next pandemic now by preserving animal specimens in natural history collections
In response to the ongoing pandemic, Kendra Phelps and I had the opportunity to lead an international team of collaborators on this review paper that recently was published in mBio (see here). Read the press release here.
U-M scientists teach biodiversity using preserved specimens dating back 100 years
This paper was led by PhD student, Lisa Walsh! In this paper, we gave an example of how to utilize natural history collections in the biology classroom. You can read more about the publication here, and you can access the paper here.
Historical letters in U-M zoology museum archive highlight links between specimen collection, conservation
I had the pleasure of mentoring EEB undergraduate, Clark Schmutz, on this project! Clark is also an English major and has interest in pursuing law school. This project allowed Clark to dive into our archives to develop this school story of natural history collections and their utility in supporting in conservation. Read more here.
Research Museums Center holds first all-museums tour
We held our first public event at the Research Museums Center. Hopefully, it is the first of many. Read more here.
Video celebrates successful museum specimen move
After two years, we did it! We finally completed the move of our collections to the Research Museums Center. Although we will certainly miss our location on U-M’s Central Campus, we are happy to have our collections in a state-of-the-art facilities. This press release and corresponding video celebrate this milestone (see here).
U-M Gateway feature: Science and art collide brilliantly in class: Making Science Visible
It’s always great hosting students from the U-M School of Art! The Making Science Visible is a fantastic combination of science and art. More information read here.
On U-M Gateway: ID Day ABCs: algae, bird skull, cicada
Our time in the Ruthven Museums Building is quickly coming to an end. Fortunately, we had one more opportunity to participate in the last ID Day in the exhibit museum. Read more about the event here.
U-M partners in project to create digital encyclopedia of thousands of 3-D vertebrate specimens
The oVert project is underway! I cannot wait to see what this project does for the natural history collection community. Read more about oVert here.
Inaugural Digital Data in Biodiversity Research Conference hosted by U-M museums
We were fortunate to host the inaugural Digital Data in Biodiversity Research Conference. For more information, please read here.
Thompson Lab of Mammalogy 