Gavin Svenson, Ph.D., serves as the Cleveland Museum of Natural History’s Chief Science Officer, a role to which he was promoted in 2022. Dr. Svenson has been a driving force in the creation of new strategies to support the Museum’s mission and a bold reinvention of its campus and exhibits in an expanded, 375,000-square-foot facility. The transformed Museum will depart from the traditional timeline- and discipline-based format to place its audiences and scientific inquiry at the forefront. This innovative approach will position the Cleveland Museum of Natural History as a vital resource in the region and as a leader in the promotion of scientific literacy.
In addition to his role in the Museum’s transformation, Dr. Svenson oversees a research and conservation staff, a collection of more than five million specimens spanning diverse fields of science, the Nathan and Fannye Shafran Planetarium and Ralph Mueller Observatory, and more than 12,000 acres of protected and stewarded natural areas across Northeast Ohio. In line with the Museum’s reinvention, Dr. Svenson has led a reorganization of the Museum’s curatorial division and spearheaded a series of new curatorial appointments. This new structure will foster interdisciplinary research while allowing Museum scientists to more deeply integrate their groundbreaking research and the Museum’s vast collections into its public exhibits and education programs.
Dr. Svenson’s insights have been instrumental in shaping the direction and content of the transformed Museum. In 2021, he organized a national survey on scientific literacy which helped to inform the Museum’s vision for the future—a future in which the Museum is positioned to address the most pressing issues of our time, empower visitors to appreciate their connection with nature, and contribute continued scientific leadership as a world-class research institution. Dr. Svenson has guided and contributed to all aspects of the transformation project, collaborating with design partners and the Museum’s Research & Collections and Education teams throughout the process.
An entomologist with expertise in the biological diversity and evolutionary history of praying mantises, Dr. Svenson also serves as the Museum’s Curator of Invertebrate Zoology. He is regarded as one of the world’s foremost experts on praying mantises, and the results of his research have revealed new evolutionary patterns among these insects and prompted important changes in their traditional scientific classification. More information about Dr. Svenson’s research is available at CMNH.org/svenson.
Dr. Svenson joined the Museum as the Curator of Invertebrate Zoology in 2012. He earned his Ph.D. in Phylogenetics and Systematics from Brigham Young University in 2007, after graduating with a B.S. from Cornell University in 2002. He completed his postdoctoral research at the New York State Museum in Albany, New York.