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.