Carnegie Museum of Natural History
Conservator, Carnegie Museum of Natural History
Areas of focus: Preventative conservation
Gretchen Anderson is a conservator and the head of the Section of Conservation at Carnegie Museum of Natural History, which houses more than 22 million objects. Anderson manages collections care and continually improves environmental conditions throughout the museum, including in exhibitions and storage. Her research interests focus on preventive conservation practices for natural science collections, including environmental and integrated pest management.
Albert D. Kollar
Geologist and Collection Manager, Carnegie Museum of Natural History
Areas of focus: Geology, Natural History of Western Pennsylvania, Carnegie Architecture and Building Stone History, Carnegie historic dinosaur discovery sites
Albert D. Kollar is the museum’s collection manager for its section of invertebrate paleontology, home to the more than 800,000 specimens. Kollar has traveled extensively throughout the United States and conducted research on invertebrate fossils, climate change, and the geology at sites of significant Carnegie paleontology discoveries. His most recent research will take him to Ireland, France, Italy and Croatia to study the geology and provenance of the famous architectural stones used in the historic Carnegie Museum building in Oakland.
Paleontologist and principal dinosaur researcher, Carnegie Museum of Natural History
Areas of focus: Dinosaurs, birds, and crocodilians that lived during the Mesozoic Era
Matt Lamanna is a paleontologist and the principal dinosaur researcher at Carnegie Museum of Natural History, which houses one of the world’s largest dinosaur collections. Within the past 18 years, Lamanna has directed or co-directed field expeditions to Antarctica, Argentina, Australia, China, Egypt, and Greenland that have resulted in the discovery of multiple new species of dinosaurs and other Cretaceous-aged animals. Lamanna and colleagues’ most significant finds include the gigantic new titanosaurian sauropods (long-necked plant-eating dinosaurs) Dreadnoughtus, Notocolossus, and Paralititan. He also led the study of the bizarre bird-like dinosaur Anzu wyliei, also known as the ‘Chicken from Hell,’ and co-discovered dozens of beautifully-preserved fossils of the 120 million-year-old bird Gansus yumenensis in China.
Assistant Curator of Mollusks, Carnegie Museum of Natural History
Areas of focus: Ecology and systematics, especially of mollusks and other invertebrates
Malacologist Tim Pearce cares for the museum’s huge research collection of snails and clams. His area of study focuses on the ecology of land snails, especially in Pennsylvania. He has a master’s degree in snail paleontology coupled with a Ph.D. in snail ecology, which gives him a perspective on how time has affected the makeup of modern snail communities.
Director of Powdermill Nature Reserve
Areas of focus: Insect behavior, pollinators, forest regeneration, Marcellus gas development, and Appalachian ecology
John Wenzel is an entomologist and the director of Powdermill Nature Reserve, Carnegie Museum of Natural History’s environmental research center. Wenzel has traveled to tropical America, Africa, and Europe on expeditions, and has published a large volume of research on insect and arachnid behavior. Wenzel created new educational and research programs at Powdermill that include gardening with native plants, landscape-level research in forest regeneration, field experiences in North American ecology for South American students, and basic research on the crisis in bee health. He also created web tools for following the hydrofracture (fracking) gas industry.
To schedule an interview, email Sloan MacRae or call him at 412.353.4678.