Q. What is your favorite object or gallery in the Museum, and why?
A. It’s hard to pick just one, but I must go with the Robert R. Wiener Mineral Gallery.
Marveling at the brilliant colors and the infinite variety of crystal forms never fails to inspire me. Standing in the gallery also brings back so many good memories of talking with Bob Wiener about the joy of collecting minerals and the even greater joy of sharing them with our community.
Q. What is something about the Bruce no one knows?
A. Less than 10% of our science collection is on view at any given time. We have thousands of objects entrusted to us that serve not only as exhibition pieces but as crucial resources for research. In our storage rooms we curate objects ranging from 200-million-year-old fossils to modern giant clam shells. Whether it is a tiny metallic green bee or our 900-pound polar bear Charlie, each object tells a story.
Q. What exhibition or program are you most looking forward to at the Bruce?
A. I can’t wait for Six Extinctions this summer. I’m a professional paleontologist, but I am also someone who has loved dinosaurs since I was two years old. So, I am probably just as excited as my own kids that Tyrannosaurus and Torosaurus are coming to the Bruce. While the dinosaurs are the stars of the show, they will be joined by many other marvels of evolution such as the six-foot long millipede Arthropleura , the boomerang-headed amphibian Diplocaulus, and the iconic Smilodon (aka the saber-toothed tiger).
