Joel A. Bartsch, President, Curator of Gems and Minerals

A native Texan and longtime Houstonian, Joel A. Bartsch was appointed president of the Houston Museum of Natural Science in 2004. His previous 15 years of service at the Museum included his position as curator of the Cullen Hall of Gems and Minerals, which he continues to hold, and key roles as project manager for several of the Museum’s temporary exhibitions and permanent exhibit halls, including the nationally renowned Wiess Energy Hall.

Since becoming president, Bartsch has also served as curator for an entirely new permanent exhibit, the Lester and Sue Smith Gem Vault, which showcases many of the world’s finest cut and polished gems. He was also instrumental in developing a partnership with the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia to create and tour Lucy’s Legacy: The Hidden Treasures of Ethiopia, an exclusive exhibition that highlights Ethiopia’s rich natural and cultural history. The exhibit, which includes the world’s most famous fossil, an early hominid ancestor known as “Lucy,” is on display through April 27, 2008.

Since Bartsch’s appointment as president, the Museum has hosted multiple blockbuster special exhibitions, including The Dead Sea Scrolls, Mummy: the Inside Story and Gunther von Hagens’ BODY WORLDS 3: The Anatomical Exhibition of Real Human Bodies, and created its own spectacular special exhibition Gold! Natural Treasure, Cultural Obsession. His fascinating chronicle of the Museum’s world-renowned mineral collection, Masterpieces of the Mineral World, was published in 2005.

Bartsch received a Bachelor of Arts from Concordia University. He received a Master of Arts from Rice University. His 26-year museum career has included positions at the Colorado School of Mines, the Texas Memorial Museum in Austin and the Lyman Museum in Hilo, Hawaii. He also served as director of California State Mining & Mineral Museum, Mariposa, California.

Dirk Van Tuerenhout, Ph.D., Curator of Anthropology

Dr. Van Tuerenhout is an expert in human cultures, especially those of Latin America, and is well versed in most areas of archaeology and anthropology.

He is currently the curator of the world premiere exhibition, Lucy’s Legacy: The Hidden Treasures of Ethiopia, which features the fossilized remains of the hominid primate known as Lucy as well as over 5 million years of Ethiopian history.

He also curates the John P. McGovern Hall of the Americas, which showcases the Museum’s permanent collection of artifacts from the indigenous cultures of North and South America. He is the curator of Vanishing Worlds: Art and Ritual in Amazonia, a traveling exhibition of the world’s finest Amazonian feather art. Dr. Van Tuerenhout regularly serves as curator of traveling exhibitions such as The Dead Sea Scrolls (2004), Mummy: the inside story (2005) and Imperial Rome (2007).

“The real stars behind the objects museums display are the people who made them,” said Van Tuerenhout. “If you were Aztec, what would your name have been? What would you have eaten, and how would you have gotten it? How would you explain the world around you? The answers to questions like these provide fascinating insight into what it means to be human.”

Dr. Van Tuerenhout has a Masters degree in Ancient History and another in Art History and Archaeology, both from the Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, Belgium, as well as a Masters degree and a Ph.D. in Anthropology from Tulane University. He authored a book on the Aztecs, and he speaks five languages, including English, Spanish, Dutch, French and German.

For more information, click HERE.

Nancy Greig, Ph.D., Curator of Entomology

Dr. Greig is an expert in entomology, with a specialty in the interaction between insects, especially butterflies, and plants. She can speak knowledgeably on a variety of subjects, such as butterflies and butterfly gardening, the monarch butterfly migration, pollinating insects, insects in general, tropical plants and their adaptations, and plant ecology in general.

“Insects are critical to human life. Without them, how would most fruits and vegetable plants be pollinated? How would the energy from dead matter be returned to the environment?” said Greig. “It’s incredibly important to get people past the ‘eew’ factor to the realization that insects are vital members of our ecosystem that need to be preserved.”

Dr. Greig recently completed a major renovation of the Museum’s Cockrell Butterfly Center, which transformed the current Live Insect Zoo and Brown Hall of Entomology into an integrated Insect Wing, making the exhibit spaces more kid-friendly and interactive.

Dr. Greig has a B.A. in linguistics, and a Ph.D. in biological sciences, both from the University of Texas, Austin. She has served as adjunct professor of ecology and environmental biology at Rice University since 1998. She is fluent in English and Spanish.

For more information, click HERE

Robert T. Bakker, Ph.D., Visiting Curator of Paleontology

Dr. Bakker is a world-renowned paleontologist, one of the first to posit that dinosaurs had feathers, long before feathered fossils were found. Along with other noted paleontologists such as John Ostrom and Armand de Ricqules, Bakker has changed the image of dinosaurs from slow-moving, slow-witted, cold-blooded creatures to, in at least some cases, warm-blooded giants well equipped to dominate the Earth for 200 million years.

He can speak knowledgeably on any topic related to paleontology, and is especially interested in re-creating the environments and deaths of prehistoric creatures using “CSI”-like forensic techniques.

“I was fond of saying most of dinosaur science was wrong stuff, and that did offend a lot of people. Someone had to say dinosaurs had feathers,” said Bakker. “I want to put dinosaurs in context and in their chosen environment. I want you to be able to feel and think and smell what a Stegosaurus experienced. I want you to smell fresh fish on your teeth as a Ceratosaurus, then do this with the whole history of dinosaurs. Then I want you to finally understand how and why dinosaurs ruled.”

Currently, Dr. Bakker is at work on developing the world premiere exhibition Dinosaur Mummy CSI: Cretaceous Science Investigation, in which Leonardo, a mummified dinosaur with actual, preserved skin will be on public display for the first time, at the Houston Museum of Natural Science. Dr. Bakker was one of the first scientists to work on the mummy, beginning in 2002. He also leads the Museum’s Paleontology field program, currently digging for Dimetrodon and other Permian-era species in Seymour, TX.

Dr. Bakker is the author of the groundbreaking 1986 book The Dinosaur Heresies: New Theories Unlocking the Mystery of the Dinosaurs and Their Extinction, and has written many dinosaur books for both adults and children since then. Bakker was among the advisors for the film Jurassic Park, and the character Dr. Robert Burke in the motion picture The Lost World: Jurassic Park is based on him.

For more information, click HERE

Carolyn Sumners, Ed.D., Vice President of Astronomy & Physics

Dr. Sumners has expertise in astronomy, chemistry and physics. She can speak knowledgeably on any topic related to planets, stars, solar systems and the universe.

Dr. Sumners worked on the development of the first Challenger Learning Center, which opened at the Museum in 1988, and trained NASA astronauts on star fields in the Museum’s Burke Baker Planetarium.

In addition to serving as director of the Planetarium, which produces new animated full-dome films each year, she is director of the George Observatory, a satellite facility of the Houston Museum of Natural Science that houses the Gueymard Telescope, one of the largest in the country available for public viewing.

“Kids can discover what’s out there in space with their own eyes at the George Observatory, experience virtual manned space flight in the Challenger Learning Center, and imagine how science will advance future space exploration in the Burke Baker Planetarium,” said Sumners. “At the Museum, we want to inspire children to pursue science, to help create the future they will be living in.”

Dr. Sumners is an adjunct professor of Physics and Astronomy at Rice University. She has written trade books, a textbook series and over 50 planetarium shows. Her research interests include archaeoastronomy, which attempts to replicate the night sky at critical moments in history.

For more information, click HERE

Daniel M. Brooks, Ph.D., Curator of Vertebrate Zoology

Dr. Brooks is an expert in vertebrate zoology, with a special interest in ecology, natural history and conservation of birds and mammals in Texas, Latin America and Africa.

He serves as curator of the Museum’s Farrish Hall of Texas Wildlife and the Frensley/Graham Hall of African Wildlife, and has studied vertebrate animals of sub-Saharan Africa, Texas and Latin America.

“How do different species work together to create an ecosystem? What happens when one of those species disappears?” said Brooks. “The answers are critical to our understanding of the world, and more importantly, our survival within it.”

Dr. Brooks is Chair of the Cracid Specialist Group, which studies this endangered family of birds, half of which are periled with extinction. Cracids are important bio-indicators of the stability of a tropical environment. Dr. Brooks’ book Conserving Cracids: the Most Threatened Family of Birds in the Americas was published in 2006.

Dr. Brooks earned a B.S. in Zoology from the State University of New York at Oswego, a M.Sc. in Biology at Texas Tech University, and a Ph.D. in Wildlife and Fish Science at Texas A&M University.

For more information, visit HERE

David Temple, Associate Curator of Paleontology

As Associate Curator of Paleontology, Temple developed the Museum’s current Paleontology Field Program. His team excavates a Permian locality in North Texas, looking for fossils of Dimetrodon, the most fearsome pre-dinosaur predator, as well as every other sign of life, in order to more accurately reconstruct a 250-million year old ecosystem. The goals of the project include: collecting display-quality specimens of Permian-era species; creating original scientific interpretation of these species; and promoting the idea of “citizen science,” in which scientists collaborate with science-loving volunteers, students, teachers and Museum staff.

“My ultimate goal in any project is to inspire a love of science,” said Temple. “Paleontology is a topic that universally gets students excited. It is also multidisciplinary, meaning that virtually all of the sciences contribute to our understanding of the ancient past. So, students are not only excited about dinosaurs but also chemistry, physics, math, statistics, biology and other fields they may not have thought of as ‘neato,’ ‘groovy’ or even ‘cool.’”

Trying to find a way to accomplish this with insects – one of nature’s most unfairly reviled creations – for the original opening of the Cockrell Butterfly Center in 1994, Temple inadvertently became the Museum’s Bug Chef. Since then, he’s created innovative recipes ranging from Bourbon Flambé Waxworms to Worm-crusted apple treats as well as dishes from famous insect chefs.

Temple has studied a wide range of subjects, and has curated or co-curated exhibitions at the Houston Museum of Natural Science ranging from Gold! Natural Treasure, Cultural Obsession and Benjamin Franklin: In Search of a Better World to exhibits featuring topics like amber; and lizards and snakes. He has created innovative interpretation techniques, such as using live actors to portrait passengers on the Titanic, or developing a short play about the discovery of the Tyrannosaurus rex.

In addition to his current position, Temple was formally trained as an Archaeologist at the University of Houston and he has worked with all of the previous paleontology curators at the Houston Museum of Natural Science on various projects. He has also served as Curator of the Education Collections, Director of Education, and Director of Volunteers. He is currently pursuing a graduate degree in Museum Studies, with an additional emphasis on paleontological collections and programming.