Our Mission
Ocean acidification along with rising temperatures have put stress on our coral reefs like never before. In response to this stress, reefs are bleaching at fast rates, destroying otherwise healthy ecosystems. Coral reefs are home to many endemic species, protect coast lines from erosion and the effects of storms, and are a source of food and income for many costal communities, making them an irreplaceable resource. Without preventative and restorative action coral reefs will continue to suffer at the hand climate change.
Run by the Joe Webb Peoples Museum of Natural History, our project’s ultimate goal is to increase awareness of climate change’s impacts on coral reefs while at the same time giving people the opportunity to create a crocheted representation of the ecosystem we are trying to save. We also seek to raise awareness of the Joe Webb Peoples Museum collections.
People
PROF. DR. ELLEN THOMAS
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.
Lily Rudofsky '25
A Biology major at Wesleyan, Lily is working on cataloguing and researching the origins of the current coral collection at the Joe Webb Peoples museum.
Exhibit Contributors
Students:
Lily Rudofsky ’25: Crochet concept, student curator of Recent Coral Collection
Cole Goco ’23: Artwork, student curator of Pierre Shale Collection
Lilly Hochhauser ’25: Student curator of Solnhofen Collection
Fletcher Levy ’23: Student curator of Fossil Vertebrate Collection, Osteology
Anya Le ’25 and Vivian Gu ’23: Taxidermy Birds Collection
Alexandre Baker ’24: student curator Turtles
Faculty:
Kate Brunson: Assistant Professor of Archaeology (Archaeology Program) and Assistant Professor, East Asian Studies (College of East Asian Studies)
Ann C. Burke: Professor of Biology, Emerita (Biology Department)
Ellen Thomas: Smith Curator of Paleontology of the Joe Webb Peoples Museum of Natural History (Earth and Environmental Sciences) and Harold T. Stearns Professor of Integrative Sciences, Emerita (College of Integrative Sciences)
Johan C Varekamp: Smith Curator of Mineralogy and Petrology of the Joe Webb Peoples Museum of Natural History (Earth and Environmental Sciences) and Harold T. Stearns Professor of Earth Science, Emeritus (Earth and Environmental Sciences Department)
Technical Assistance:
Joel T. LaBella: Facility Manager (Earth and Environmental Sciences Department)
Jennifer Platt: Manager of Print Services (Information Technology Services)
Shawn M Lopez: Makerspace Coordinator (College of Integrative Sciences)
Financial Support:
Donation by Mrs. Penny Peoples
Wesleyan Grants-in-Support-of-Scholarship to Ellen Thomas
Museum endowment by Henry Monmouth Smith
Crafters:
Alyse Wicentowski
Ana Ziebarth
Betsy McCormick
Brittney Rosenberg
Cheryl Hagner
Drew Weddig
Ellen Thomas
Emma Specht
Isa Cino
Jaydie Halperin
Jennifer Hadley
Kathryn Willebrand
Liz Boyle
Lori Stethers
Lucia Rea
Nate Kianovsky
Nola Mansour
Olivia Berger
Sam Burr
Sandy Frimel
Sarah Parke
Sarah Timble
Shelissa Newball
Teaghan Dunbar
Wendy Berlind