2018 Distinguished Lecture Series w/ World-Renowned Paleontologist & Smithsonian's Dr. Kirk Johnson
Venue: Lyric Theatre, Blacksburg
Organizations: Dr. Kirk Johnson
Date: Friday, February 16, 2018
Time: 4:00 - 5:00 PM
Event Types: Speaking Engagements
Cost: Free
Description:
The Global Change Center at Virginia Tech presents the 2018 Distinguished Lecture Series with Dr. Kirk Johnson, Sant Director of the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History, on Friday, February 16, 2018 at The Lyric Theatre.

Kirk Johnson, a world-renowned paleontologist who focuses on fossil plants and the extinction of the dinosaurs, will visit Virginia Tech and give the distinguished lecture “Natural History in the Age of Humans".

Dr. Kirk Johnson is the Sant Director of the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History. He is a paleontologist who has led expeditions that have resulted in the discovery of more than 1,400 fossil sites. His research focuses on fossil plants and the extinction of the dinosaurs. He is known for his scientific articles, popular books, museum exhibitions, documentaries, and collaborations with artists.

In 2010-11, he led the excavation of an ice age site near Snowmass Village, Colorado, that recovered more than 5,400 bones of mammoths, mastodons and other ice age animals. This dig was featured in the NOVA documentary, Ice Age Death Trap, and in Johnson’s book, "Digging Snowmastodon, Discovering an Ice Age World in the Colorado Rockies". His recent documentaries include the three-part NOVA series Making North America, which aired on PBS networks in November 2015, and The Great Yellowstone Thaw which premiered on PBS in June 2017.

In 2016, he received a Kavli Science Journalism Award for hosting the three-part NOVA 2015 documentary series, “Making North America.” In 2017, he hosted “Great Yellowstone Thaw,” a documentary series co-produced by PBS and the BBC that chronicles how animals adapt to changing seasons in Yellowstone National Park.

Before joining the Smithsonian in 2012, Johnson served as chief curator of the Denver Museum of Natural History, where he directed the museum’s Prehistory Journey exhibit installation. He holds a Ph.D. in geology and paleobotany from Yale University and completed postdoctoral research in the northern Australian rainforests.

Link: https://naturalhistory.si.edu/about/kirk-johnson.html

Admission is free and open to the public.

A book signing will follow the talk in the Main Lobby.

To view the event flyer, visit: https://i.imgur.com/a7sCiMj.jpg.

For more information, visit: https://vtnews.vt.edu/articles/2018/02/020518-fralin-smithsonianlecture.html or https://www.facebook.com/events/220074261897678 or https://www.facebook.com/globalchangevt/ or contact the Global Change Center at 231-5400 or visit http://www.globalchange.vt.edu/.