A Female Scientist Receiving Recognition

tags: , , , , ,

The National Academy of Sciences's 2008 Daniel Girault Elliot medal.

I just learned that Jennifer A. Clack, ScD, FLS, Professor and Curator of Vertebrate Palaeontology and Acting Director of the University Museum of Zoology in Cambridge, UK, been awarded the 2008 Daniel Girault Elliot medal by the National Academy of Sciences.

The medal recognizes excellence in zoology or paleontology during a three to five year period of time, and the list of past recipients is very distinguished. Professor Clack is the first vertebrate paleontologist since Al Romer in 1956 to have been awarded this medal, only the second woman to have ever received it (the other was Libby Hyman in 1951), and the first British awardee since D'Arcy Thompson.

Professor Clack has done a lot of "traditional" work in this field, but she has also pioneered important phylogenetic, functional, and macroevolutionary studies that bear on how major evolutionary changes occur.

More like this

I missed this the first time, but Click & Clack from NPR's Car Talk answered a question about how to volcano-proof your car.
Installment # 1 is here Without delay, here are four five star choices and four four star choices:
One of SteelyKid's birthday gifts from my parents was a wheeled wooden penguin on a stick. If you roll it along the ground, the wings flap, with a very satisfying clacking noise. It took SteelyKid a little while to get the hang of it, but she's got the idea now:
In a post last month, I pointed out how aerospace engineers can learn a lot from looking at the fossils of ancient flying reptiles.

I read the headline, looked at the image, and the unbidden thought came to my mind "she doesn't exactly look like a woman".

This is excellent stuff. I'm going to have to go find out more about Clack, now.

By Luna_the_cat (not verified) on 30 Jan 2008 #permalink