Current Committee Role:
Web Officer
About Me:
I am the Conservator at the British Geological Survey in Keyworth, near Nottingham. Here, I care for a collection of several million geological samples, including fossils, rocks, minerals, microscope slides and borehole materials. I also manage our collections digitisation programme.
I have been a part of the GCG Committee since 2016, and in my previous role co-ordinated the organisation of the 2016 AGM and Seminar day. I find being part of GCG is an excellent way to stay in touch with others who work in similar roles and often face similar challenges.
I am not a geologist by training, rather an engineer, photographer and conservator, but my personal geological favourites are the Lias rocks of Dorset and North Yorkshire, and the Silurian limestones of the Black Country.
Current Committee Role:
Chair
About Me:
I am the Curator of Natural Sciences at York Museums Trust (based at the Yorkshire Museum), looking after around half a million specimens, ranging from a herbarium, to taxidermy, to a spirit collection, and everything in between. Around a quarter of these specimens are rocks, minerals and fossils, mainly from the North of England, but some from around the world. I am a geologist by training, specialising in palaeontology.
In my role as Chair, I am looking to make GCG the best it can be. GCG is a wonderful network of passionate and supportive people, and I will work with our community and the committee to serve and represent as many geological collections as possible, for the common good of unlocking their potential for education and research.
Please do get in touch if you have any suggestions as to how GCG can help you, whether by answering a query, running some training, or advocating for a collection that may be at risk.
Current Committee Role:
Treasurer
About Me:
I am Principal Curator of the Earth System section at National Museums Scotland. NMS comprises several museums, the largest of which is the National Museum of Scotland in central Edinburgh. I work there and at the National Museums Collection Centre in north Edinburgh. I am, together with a team of three, responsible for the care and development of 70,000 mineral, rock and meteorite specimens, a beautiful collection accumulated over 250 years. My job involves building the collection, facilitating and undertaking research projects, managing the team and several volunteers and leading a digital data capture project. I sit on the EU GeoCASE advisory Board, am an Associate Editor for EESTRSE (Royal Society of Edinburgh publication), am an Ordinary Member of the Edinburgh Geological Society and am a keen member of the fabulous Geological Curators’ Group. My specialty interest is helping GCG support the needs and interests of people who work with mineral collections.
Current Committee Role:
Membership Secretary
About Me:
I've been working in the Department of Geology, National Museum of Wales, Cardiff since 1985, and act as curator and collections manager for the palaeontology section. I joined GCG in 1986, and have been sitting on the committee as Membership Secretary since 2007. I very much enjoy this role as it helps me get to know many of the members. It's a complex role as it involves keeping a very detailed spreadsheet of who's paid what and when, and also securely maintaining all your contact details.
When I'm not chasing members for their subscription, I'm usually to be found deleting old emails, tidying up stores, writing talks, or carrying out one of the many other curatorial duties we all do every day.
I enjoy talking about fossils, writing about fossils and generally interacting with them. I have two new species to my name so far - a Carboniferous crinoid and a Jurassic dinosaur - Dracoraptor. Otherwise I am also interested in the history of geology, especially fossil collecting and collectors, and museums. I also sit on the committees of the local GA and RIGS groups.
Current Committee Role:
Programme Secretary
About Me:
I am Curator of Fossil Invertebrates (Brachiopods and Fossil Cephalopods) at the Natural History Museum in London. Here I am responsible for the care of a diverse collection (in terms of taxonomy, specimen preservation and type) of around 9000 drawers of specimens. I am also responsible for Integrated Pest Management (IPM) in the department and participate in outreach events both inside and outside the Museum; I'm a regular at Lyme Regis and love doing Nature Lives and my Dinosnores science show on octopuses. As of December 2019 I am also the Outreach Officer for the Palaeontological Association. I've only been on the committee for three years and I have learnt a lot from committee who are a group of like minded people from my sector. If you have any ideas for events that you would like to see the GCG run, or if you would like to host one of our events, please send me an email
At University I studied Zoology with molluscs being my first love. I did my MSc at Imperial with the NHM which is where my love of fossils (especially ammonites) took off. I enjoy doing fieldwork, especially if there's clay involved! so far while at the NHM I have done fieldwork in the UK in various locations, Morocco and China.
You can see my NHM staff profile here.
Current Committee Roles:
Chair
About Me:
I am the Collections Manager (Earth Collections) at Oxford University Museum of Natural History, where I am responsible for the day-to-day management of the Vertebrate Palaeontology Collections, including access, care, development, and research.
As a vertebrate palaeontologist I have worked across a variety of taxonomic groups, but my primary research interest lies in sharks and reptiles from the Mesozoic Era. In 2021, I was involved in an excavation in Rutland, of the largest near-complete ichthyosaur skeleton in Britain. I am passionate about engaging the public in science and, subsequent to the Rutland excavation, have delivered a talk and Q&A to over 3,700 school children, at over 140 schools, on fossil marine reptiles.
I have been on the GCG Committee since 2017 in a variety of roles, including Blog Editor. I thoroughly enjoy working with such a talented and dedicated group of professionals, and welcome the opportunity to support the geoscience community within the wider sector.
I am a Fellow of the Geological Society of London and on the organising committee for the Marine Reptile Conference. Further affiliations include the Palaeontological Association, Paleontological Society, and Natural Sciences Collections Association.
Current Committee Role:
Collections Officer
About Me:
I am Head of the National Geological Repository at the British Geological Survey (BGS), responsible for the team that looks after the largest British geoscience sample collection (around 16 million specimens), 20km of records, and one of the main UK geological libraries. I have been seriously interested in collecting fossils since the age of 13, and did a PhD on the Silurian graptolites of the Oslo Region. Experience gained whilst running a manufacturing facility then proved useful when I designed one of the earliest sample digitisation conveyor systems in 2009.
I joined BGS in 2000 with a personal mission to open up the BGS collections for study and use. I am particularly interested in promoting access to collections and information through digitisation and web delivery – an area in which the BGS is a world leader. We have delivered photographs via the web for many years – e.g. the National Building Stone Collection (4300 images) . Use of the JP2 (JPEG 2000) format allows web access to high resolution images, and has been used for several collections including UK continental shelf hydrocarbon well core samples (See for example). It has also been used for the Historical maps of the Geological Survey of Great Britain and Ireland and Magnetograms .
We have recently used JP2s for high resolution fossil images, including stereo anaglyphs, and high resolution images of petrological thin sections (30 µ thick rock slices) – or search the database . The ultimate form of specimen digitisation is the 3d digital model. The JISC funded GB/3D fossil types on line project has captured several thousand such models. For digitisation to make a difference, it needs a critical mass. The UK hydrocarbon core photographs total 140,000 and the rock thin sections represent 160,000 rocks.
As GCG Collections Officer, I am responsible for all our collections related activities.
Current Committee Role:
Secretary
About Me:
Hi, my name is Emma Bernard and I am the Secretary on the Committee of the Geological Curators’ Group. When I am not working for the GCG, my day job is the Curator of Fossil Fish at the Natural History Museum in London.
I have been on the GCG committee for over five years. I wanted to join in order to help make a difference in the field of preserving and curating geology collections, as well as in trying to open up the GCG to a wider audience. Initially I started as a bridge between the GCG and NatSCA (the Natural Sciences Collections Association), which meant sitting on both committees. My role was to feedback from one to the other, and ensure that both Subject Specialist Network groups worked together in areas where there was natural cross over, the most obvious areas being practices in the curation of geological collections and organising joint meetings (like our first joint meeting of Hazards in Museum Geological Collections). Also as part of this role, I helped to set up the Memorandum of Understanding between GCG, NatSCA and SPNHC (Society for the Preservation of Natural History).
I really enjoy being on the Committee. We meet 3 to 4 times a year to discuss recent events and news in geology and palaeontology, and to talk about and plan the coming months and years for GCG. It is also a really great opportunity to catch up with the other committee members who are all colleagues in the sector, and who otherwise work all across the country, in order to hear about their collections and other work happening in the sector outside my own area. I think it helps me keep up to date and relevant in my day job by understanding the broader geological landscape and I can share my knowledge and expertise of having worked at both regional and national museums.
Current Committee Role:
Ordinary Member
About Me:
I am Community Learning Assistant at Dinosaur Isle Museum. My role focuses on education, engagement and outreach but is also very diverse and incorporates field work, curation and documentation, digitisation and assisting with research enquiries. I have a degree in Geology but my work mostly revolves around the Cretaceous palaeontology of the Isle of Wight.
At Dinosaur Isle we are blessed to have the wealth of the palaeontology and geology of the Isle of Wight at our doorstep and we are able to maintain a collection of world renowned fossils from the local area. We regularly engage in field work and prospecting which frequently results in significant finds.
Amongst my usual regular duties I am currently working on an on-going project of the documentation and digitisation of a large collection of fossils from the Insect Bed of the Isle of Wight. One local collector has donated to us thousands of fossils including incredibly well preserved insects, spiders, crustaceans, plants, birds, molluscs, and many other fossils.
Current Committee Role:
Co-opted Member: Conservation Officer
About Me:
After gaining my degree in Environmental Sciences I spent five years working in the Palaeontology Conservation Unit at the Natural History Museum in London, conserving and preparing all sorts of fossils but mostly preparing and mounting dinosaur material for display. Three years were well spent working almost solely on the conservation of the marine reptile collection. During this time I gained an M.Sc. in Vertebrate Palaeontology at UCL, part-time. This was followed by twelve years working in the Natural History and Conservation Departments of Norfolk Museums Service, including delivering the West Runton Mammoth conservation project and being Curator of Geology for several years. Since 2007 I have been working for museums in a freelance capacity and have also completed the M.Sc. ‘Architecture: Advanced Environmental and Energy Studies’ offered by the University of East London & the Centre for Alternative Technology. For my thesis I undertook research into retrofitting small museums to improve their economic and environmental sustainability. As a result of this work I trained in the use of thermal imaging equipment and now use my own infrared camera to undertake surveys in museums to help staff understand their storage and display environments in much more detail than could be realised using any other technology.
However, most of the time I am a freelance natural history conservator specializing in the preparation, conservation, mounting, replication and curation of fossil, geological and osteological material for museums and other heritage organisations. This also includes: assessing specimens and writing condition reports; undertaking conservation surveys; assessing and rationalising collections; advising on the management of storage environments; and advising on the packing and decant/transportation of entire collections. A really satisfying array of things to keep me busy and interested!
I am also a Visiting Research Fellow at the School of Biological Sciences, University of Reading. My areas of research include conservation and preparation techniques; trace fossils; ichthyosaurs; and the Pleistocene fauna of Norfolk. For a list of my publications see: http://norfolk.academia.edu/NigelLarkin or https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Nigel_Larkin
Do get in touch if you would like a copy of anything.
I joined the GCG Committee in 2017 and look forward to getting involved in the many great events they provide, in particular the Symposium on Palaeontological Preparation and Conservation. This is usually held every September before or after the Symposium on Vertebrate Palaeontology and Comparative Anatomy. You can read more about the event, see copies of posters presented in previous years and read abstracts of the talks etc here: SPPC - Symposium on Palaeontological Preparation and Conservation - The Geological Curators' Group (geocurator.org)
You can find me on Twitter at: Twitter: https://twitter.com/MrIchthyosaurus