Curators Vertebrate and Non-vertebrate Paleontology

The University of Texas at Austin:
Jackson School of Geosciences:
Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences

The primary expectation for these positions is facilitating the full integration of the collections into the research and teaching programs of the Jackson School through collection‑based research, active collaboration with JSG stakeholders and campus partners, curation and conservation of these substantial collections for academic research and global access, and teaching one course per year in our undergraduate program. Stakeholders include JSG faculty who are research curators, active researchers in other UT colleges, and an independent, public‑facing museum, the Texas Science & Natural History Museum .

While the Laboratories conduct a modest level of public outreach and engagement, that is not a primary mission of the Laboratories.

The Vertebrate Paleontology Laboratory (VPL; est. 1949) is the principal repository for vertebrate fossils collected from state and federal lands in Texas and contiguous areas, amongst the largest (2M specimens) and most‑highly cited fossil vertebrate collections in North America , as well as an extensive collection of extant vertebrate skeletons. The VPL maintains a fossil preparation laboratory and a library and archive of research materials from contributing researchers.

General strengths of the collections are in its holdings from Early Permian terrestrial sediments, Late Triassic terrestrial sediments, Late Cretaceous marine and terrestrial sediments, Tertiary terrestrial sediments, and rich Quaternary cave deposits.

The Non‑vertebrate Paleontology Laboratory (NPL; est. 1999) is a vast repository (4M specimens) drawn from a wide array of geological research. It is known for its rare and important specimens with a type and figured collection of over 22,000 specimens, and for its innovative approaches to the management of an unconventional collection. The focus of the NPL is invertebrate and paleobotanical fossils, but these are complemented by a wealth of recent marine, freshwater and terrestrial specimens, and an extensive rock, mineral and impact‑related collection.

The Jackson School Museum of Earth History is a research organization without public exhibits, however, it maintains close ties to UT’s Texas Science and Natural History Museum, which exhibits outstanding specimens from the VPL and NPL collections.

The Professors of Practice and Curators in Charge of the VPL and NPL are expected to contribute to the strong reputation of the paleontology programs at the University of Texas at Austin in several ways, including:

• Conduct independent paleontological research and publish in appropriate peer‑review journals. Support and collaborate with other faculty researchers at the Jackson School and UT Austin, and support research on VPL and NPL collections by UT graduate and undergraduate students. We especially seek researchers whose scholarship would utilize the museum’s vast fossil collections.
• Seek external funds for paleontological research and collection development. Work with the development officers of the Jackson School to pursue foundation and donor support for Lab activities.

• Serve as member of the museum steering committee, which sets research priorities and collection/conservation goals for both VPL and NPL.
• Serve as curator‑in‑charge of collections, in consultation with faculty research curators.
• Facilitate ongoing collaborations among UT researchers and catalyze new ones. Advocate for the collections and their use in research and teaching.
• Oversee and work constructively with laboratory staff, including the laboratory collections manager (VPL, NPL) and fossil preparator (VPL only), managing the operations of the laboratory in alignment with school priorities, and seeking to proactively address operational challenges. With only a few full‑time staff, laboratory employees must occasionally step into each other’s roles to meet the needs of the lab.
• Conduct collections acquisition to strengthen and enhance collections for research, education, and exhibit purposes, while…