Curator’s Forum
What do the Museum’s curators do? The Curator’s Forum lecture series lets you find out. Get acquainted with the latest Museum research being done in fields ranging from archaeology to zoology.
These informative presentations are held Wednesday evenings in Murch Auditorium. There is a reception after every lecture, to meet the Curator and ask questions. Light refreshments are served. Proceeds support the Museum’s Collections & Research Division.
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Wednesday, February 25, 2009, 7 pm 
Dr. Timothy Matson, Curator of Vertebrate Zoology
TFM is a chemical that has been used to control the invasive sea lamprey in Ohio waters since 1986. Nontargeted species, including the common mudpuppy, are sensitive to TFM and often suffer high mortality during its application in rivers. Data from specimens salvaged during TFM applications and from Museum field research indicate that mudpuppies have declined within treated local streams. Dr. Timothy Matson discusses these data and the population instability and reduced stream biodiversity they imply.
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Wednesday, March 18, 2009, 7 pm
Dr. Jim Bissell, Curator of Botany
The Museum's Natural Areas Program protects our region's most unique ecosystems. Museum preserves comprise more than 4,000 acres and contain some of the rarest plant and animal species in Ohio. Many are found nowhere else in the state. Dr. Jim Bissell presents an overview of the rare species on our preserves that require specific habitats to survive. These include 20 native orchids found on 33 preserves and rare fish, mussels and dragonflies that live within sensitive riverine systems buffered by river-edge forests.
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Wednesday, March 25, 2009, 7 pm
Dr. Michael Ryan, Curator of Vertebrate Paleontology
The Gobi Desert of Mongolia has produced some of the world’s most famous dinosaurs, including Velociraptor and Protoceratops. It is also one of the last places on Earth that still has unexplored frontiers for discovering new types of dinosaurs. For the past four summers, Dr. Michael Ryan has worked with an international group of dinosaur paleontologists exploring these new regions and collecting literally tons of fossils. He will present some of these new finds and explain why the Gobi is the cradle of Asian dinosaur paleontology.
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Wednesday, April 8, 2009, 7 pm
Harvey Webster, Director of Wildlife Resource Center
Ohio is home to hundreds of species of birds, ranging from the familiar backyard chickadees and nuthatches to rarities such as Mississippi Kites. How are these species faring in the face of our state's human-dominated landscape? What will avian flu, West Nile virus, wind power, cormorants and other factors do to our bird life? Will we be seeing the same species in Ohio in 50 years?
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Wednesday, April 29, 2009, 7 pm
Dr. Yohannes Haile-Selassie, Curator of Physical Anthropology
The Woranso-Mille paleontological site in the Afar Region of Ethiopia was discovered in 2004. Four years of fieldwork there have yielded more than 3,500 fossil specimens of vertebrates ranging from rats, cats and dogs to monkeys, early hominids and elephants. The site samples slices of time between 5 million and 2 million years ago. Dr. Yohannes Haile-Selassie presents results from his fieldwork and the hypothesis of an ancestor-descendant relationship between Australopithecus afarensis (Lucy’s species, which lived 3.0 to 3.6 million years ago) and its putative ancestor, Australopithecus anamensis (3.9 to 4.2 million years ago).
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Wednesday, May 20, 2009, 7 pm
Dr. Joe Hannibal, Curator of Invertebrate Paleontology
James A. Garfield (1831-1881) is a revered historical figure in Ohio. But few know that he was interested in geology and championed geological surveys on the state and national level. Dr. Joe Hannibal presents these aspects of the martyred president's life and the remarkable story of Joe Stanley-Brown, the man in the urn in the Garfield Monument.
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The Curator's Forum is sponsored by Cuyahoga County Public Library, WVIZ/WCPN ideastream and Cleveland Magazine. |
New! Box dinners available before each talk
Reserve your box dinner and dine in The Blue Planet cafe starting at 5 pm. Chat with a member of the Museum’s scientific staff while you eat. Dinners include either a ham, turkey, roast beef or vegetarian sandwich, pasta salad, fruit salad, cookie and soda. Cost: $8.50 per meal. Dinner orders must be placed by phone, please call the Museum Box Office at (216) 231-1177. Dinner reservations must be made at least one week before each lecture.
Tickets:
Members: $5 per lecture
Nonmembers: $7 per lecture
College students admitted free with valid ID.
Purchase single ticket online:
Bonus: Purchase the full series ticket package and you'll receive the opportunity to attend a special reception following the final lecture on May 20 at which you can meet all of the participating curators at a wine and cheese reception and take a behind-the-scenes tour.
To order tickets via phone, call 800-317-9155, ext. 3279, or (216) 231-1177
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