The museum is maintained by a vibrant team of dedicated students and devoted faculty curators. Meet the faces behind the scenes that create the dynamic museum experience Wesleyan has come to cherish.
CURATORS
Prof. Dr. Ellen Thomas
Smith Curator of Palaeontology;
Harold T. Stearns Professor of Integrative Sciences, Emerita
Ellen Thomas is a paleoceanographer/ micropaleontologist who studies benthic foraminifera (eukaryotic unicellular organisms) as proxies for the impact of changes in environment and climate on living organisms on various time scales, from millions of years to decades, combining data on foraminiferal assemblages with data on trace element and isotopic shell composition.
Prof. Dr. Johan Varekamp
Smith Curator of Mineralogy and Petrology; Harold T. Stearns Professor of Integrative Sciences, Emeritus
AFFILIATED Faculty
Prof. Dr. Ann C. Burke
Professor of Biology Emerita
ACBurke is an Evolutionary Morphologist with specific interest in the morphological evolution of the musculoskeletal system in vertebrates and the role of developmental processes in that evolution. She has used both classical experimental embryology and modern molecular methods to explore developmental mechanisms that result in morphological novelties. Since 2017 she has focused on the challenge of resurrecting and restoring the scattered remnants of the Wesleyan Natural History Museum.
Prof. Dr. Katherine Brunson
Assistant Professor of Archaeology & Assistant Professor, East Asian Studies
Katherine Brunson is a zooarchaeologist who studies the origins of East Asia’s domesticated animals and the environmental impacts of animal domestication in China. Her research interests include ancient DNA, pastoralism in East Asia, extirpations and extinctions of China’s native mammals, oracle bones, bone artifact production techniques, and archaeological collections management. Her lab, the Environmental Archaeology Lab, currently houses Wesleyan’s vertebrate skeletal collections.
STAFF
Phaedra Durost
Administrative Assistant
Joel Labella
Facilities Manager
James (Jim) Zareski MA'14
Research Associate & Master Carpenter
Bruce Strickland
Master Engineer
David (Dave) Strickland
Master Engineer
CURRENT STUDENTS
Lily Hochhouser '25
Lily Rudofsky '25
A Biology and E&ES double major working on cataloguing and displaying the recent coral collection, Lily spearheaded the craft sea critters project.
Michael Fadugbagbe '26
Anya LE '25
A Biology and E&ES double major working with the taxidermy and pickle collections. Currently working on the in-progress Broken Bodies exhibit and the upcoming bald eagle display in SciLi.
Ting Tsai '27
NICOLE STEIGERWALD '24
ALUMNI
Andy Tan Dick Yee & Yu Kai Tan
As student curators, Andy (left) & Yu Kai (right) spearheaded digitisation, specimen imaging and 3D scanning efforts for the natural history collections at Wesleyan. Together, they restored and designed exhibits of Shelley the Glyptodon, Terry the Deinotherium, Mosasaur in Olin, Scheenstia maximus, various other historical Ward's cast, the 2018 Tree of Life exhibit in the Science Library et cetera. They enjoy exhibit and graphic designing, fossil and historical cast restoration, as well as taxonomy research. During their leisure time they photograph spring ephemerals, native blooms and curiosities.
Andy is a Biology and E&ES double major (BA'21) while Yu Kai is an Anthropology, Biology and E&ES triple major (BA'20). Yu Kai also completed an MA in E&ES in 2021.
Melissa McKee BA'17 MA'18
a graduate student in Earth and Environmental Sciences, Melissa helped initiate the museum revival and created rudimentary catalogues to evaluate the state of the collections in 2017.
Margaret fitch '22
Nina Hirai '23
Cole Goco '23
A Film and Biology double major whose work with the Peoples Museum includes cataloging the Pierre Shale collection, restoring fossil casts and creating promotional artwork.
Vivian GU '23
Prakriti Mittal '23
Alexandra Dibrindisi BA'19
A biology major, who spent some time helping with specimen restoration efforts during her senior year. She assisted in identifying, categorizing, and digitizing the taxidermy bird collection, as well as revamping display cases in Shanklin Lvl 2.
Eric Marsh '22
Camille Britton Ba'20
Camille received High Honors for her thesis in the College of Letters, using the Wesleyan collections. She created a guidebook for the taxidermy bird collections which she helped catalogue.
FLETCHER LEVY'23
A Biology, and E&ES double major, working on the digitization of the osteology collection. Fletcher has designed several natural history displays including the “Specimen of the Month” and the new "Wisdom Teeth" exhibition in SciLi Lobby.
Sajirat 'Bright' Palakarn BA'20
Bright majored in the College of Social Studies. He was instrumental in the rediscovery of Shelley the Glyptodon and the initial reorganisation of displaced collections in the summer of 2017.
Olivia Dugan BA'20
KUSH PURI '21
