PaleoFest Speakers Keynote Speaker: Sanaa El-Sayed, PhD Candidate, Mansoura University, Egypt

PaleoFest 2019 Schedule
(details on talks below)
Saturday
9:30 Aaron van der Reest
10:00 Denise Su Ph.D.
10:30 BREAK
11:00 Carrie Levitt-Bussian, M.S.
11:30 Roy Plotnick, Ph.D.
12:00 – 1:30 LUNCH
1:30 Ashley Poust
2:00 Alexandria Brannick
2:30 BREAK
3:00 James Lamsdell, Ph.D.
3:30 Jade Simon
6:30 Dinner & Keynote Lecture:
Sanaa El-Sayed
Sunday
10:00 David Lovelace, Ph.D.
10:30 Sarah Gibson, Ph.D.
11:00 BREAK
11:30 Armita Manafzadeh
12:00 Eva Hoffman
12:30 – 2:00 LUNCH
2:00 Thomas Cullen, Ph.D.
2:30 Regan Dunn, Ph.D.
3:00 BREAK
3:30 Antoine Bercovici, Ph.D.
4:00 Thomas Holtz, Ph.D.
Learn more about our speakers

Carrie Levitt-Bussian M.S.
Talk title: Bone Histology and Growth of Chasmosaurine Ceratopsid Dinosaurs from the Late Campanian Kaiparowits Formation, Southern Utah Carrie Levitt-Bussian is a paleontologist and the Paleontology Collections Manager at the Natural History Museum of Utah. She manages over 50,000 paleontological specimens at NHMU which includes vertebrate, invertebrate and paleobotanical fossils. She received her Masters of Science […]

Jade Simon
Talk title: Hell chick to hell chicken – using bone microstructure to uncover the life and times of North American oviraptorosaurs Jade is a PhD candidate at the University of Toronto studying the growth, diversity, and ecology of theropod dinosaurs and their avian descendants. She uses osteohistology (the study of bone microstructure) to learn […]

Regan E. Dunn
Talk title: New Evidence for Canopy Collapse at the Cretaceous-Paleogene Boundary from Leaf Cuticles Regan is a paleoecologist whose research seeks to understand the interplay between climate, plants and animal evolution through time. She is currently a Research Associate at the Field Museum of Natural History in Chicago, IL and will soon be joining […]

Dr. James Lamsdell
Talk title: From fruit flies to sea scorpions: Eurypterids as model organisms for evolutionary research Dr. James Lamsdell is an Assistant Professor of Paleobiology in the Department of Geology and Geography at West Virginia University. Dr. His research focuses on macroevolution and paleoecology through the lens of paleontology and paleobiology, particularly in aquatic arthropods such […]

Ashley Poust
Talk title: The Hidden Lives of Lost Hunters – Growth in Creodonts and Early Carnivores Ashley is a PhD candidate at the University of California, Berkeley. He is interested in links between major events in evolution and animal life history. He investigates fossil vertebrates at major transitions like those to flight or the return […]

Dr. David Lovlace
Talk title: New vertebrate discoveries from the Late Triassic Popo Agie Formation (upper Chugwater Group) of Wyoming; amphibians, phytosaurs, and dinosaurs oh my! Dr. Dave Lovelace is a vertebrate paleontologist specializing in Triassic-aged rocks of the Rocky Mountain West (252-201 million years ago). He joined the UW Geology Museum team as a research scientist […]

Aaron van der Reest
Talk title: Preservation of Original Tissues in the Alberta Geological Record. How is it Possible? Aaron van der Reest is a Master’s student in the Currie Lab at the University of Alberta where his current thesis investigates factors influencing the preservation of original soft tissues in vertebrate fossil remains. This work specifically investigates Late […]

Armita Manafzadeh
Talk title: Reconstructing locomotion: lessons from the joints of living animals Armita Manafzadeh is a PhD candidate at Brown University, where she studies the evolution and development of hindlimb joint mobility. By using an imaging technique called X-ray Reconstruction of Moving Morphology (XROMM), she visualizes the 3-D movements of bones within the legs of […]

Dr. Sarah Z. Gibson
Talk title: Fishy Finds in a Turbulent Time: New discoveries of early Mesozoic fossil fishes in the southwestern United States Dr. Sarah Z. Gibson is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Atmospheric and Hydrologic Sciences at St. Cloud State University in Minnesota. Her research explores the morphology, evolutionary history, and trophic ecology of […]

Dr. Antoine Bercovici
Talk title: A green perspective on the Cretaceous–Paleogene mass extinction event Dr. Antoine Bercovici is a research associate at the National Museum of Natural History (Smithsonian Institution) in Washington, DC, and at the Denver Museum of Nature and Science. He is a palynologist (the study of pollen and spores) and combines his skills with sedimentological […]

Thomas Cullen
Talk title: Giving SUE the T. rex a new home and what their bones can tell us about the evolution of large body size in theropods Dr. Thomas Cullen is a postdoctoral research scientist at the Field Museum of Natural History in Chicago, Illinois. His research uses data from microfossil bonebed assemblages, morphometrics, bone microstructure, […]

Alexandria Brannick
Talk title: Nestled among dinosaurs: New Alphadon specimens from Egg Mountain and their implications for marsupial evolution. Alex is a PhD candidate at the University of Washington in Seattle. She studies the morphology, diversity, and biomechanics of a group of mammals called metatherians. This group includes modern-day marsupials. Her research is focused on those metatherians of the […]

Dr. Denise Su
Talk Title: Early Hominin Paleoecology and Implications for Human Evolution Dr. Denise Su is the Director of Partnerships and Programs and Curator of Paleobotany and Paleoecology at the Cleveland Museum of Natural. She is an expert in paleoecological reconstruction. Her research explores environments in which our early ancestors lived in order to provide insight into […]

Eva Hoffman
Talk Title: A Jurassic mom with thirty-eight babies, and the evolution of mammalian reproduction Eva Hoffman studies mammals’ earliest forebears. As a graduate student at Harvard University, she uses 3D imaging and other digital methods in her research on the anatomy and evolutionary relationships of mammal-line amniotes that lived as long ago as the Carboniferous. […]

Dr. Thomas Holtz
Talk Title: Dinosaur Integument: Fuzz, Feathers, or Scales? It’s Still Complicated. Thomas R. Holtz, Jr. is Principal Lecturer in Vertebrate Paleontology at the Department of Geology, University of Maryland, College Park. His research focuses on the origin, evolution, adaptations, and behavior of carnivorous dinosaurs, and especially of tyrannosauroids (Tyrannosaurus rex and its kin). He received his […]

Dr. Roy Plotnick
Talk Title: The Fossil Record in the Far Future Dr. Roy Plotnick is a professor at the University of Illinois at Chicago. His research is notably eclectic, encompassing analytical paleobiology, taphonomy, paleobiomechanics and systematics. These studies cover a wide range of taxonomic groups, including arthropods, crinoids, brachiopods, mammals and anemones. Current research includes the vertebrate […]
TICKETS AVAILABLE ON-LINE, OVER THE PHONE, OR AT BURPEE’S FRONT DESK. (815)965-3433
Purchase Your Tickets Online:
* Online ticket service charge applies
PaleoFest Roster 2019:
- Roy Plotnick, Ph.D., University of Illinois-Chicago
- Armita Manafzadeh, Ph.D. Candidate, Brown University
- Sarah Gibson, Ph.D., St. Cloud State University
- Antoine Bercovici, Ph.D., Smithsonian’s National Museum of Natural History
- James Lamsdell, Ph.D., West Virginia University
- Jade Simon, Ph.D. Candidate, University of Toronto, Royal Ontario Museum
- Alexandria Brannick, Ph.D. Candidate, University of Washington
- Aaron Van Der Reest, MSc Student, University of Alberta
- David Lovelace, Ph.D., University of Wisconsin, UW Geology Museum
- Denise Su, Ph.D., Cleveland Museum of Natural History
- Eva Hoffman, Ph.D. Student, Harvard University
- Thomas Holtz, Ph.D., University of Maryland
- Ashley Poust, Ph.D. Candidate, University of California-Berkeley
- Regan Dunn, Ph.D., Field Museum of Natural History
- Thomas Cullen, Ph.D., Field Museum of Natural History
- Carolyn Levitt-Bussian, M.S., Natural History Museum of Utah