A. Watson Armour III Research Seminar Series

The A. Watson Armour III Research Seminar is The Field Museum's weekly academic seminar series. Talks are at noon on Wednesdays, and feature speakers from around the world presenting their research on topics related to the museum's four academic departments (Anthropology, Botany, Geology, and Zoology). Two seminars per year are set aside for speakers nominated by the museum's Environment, Culture, and Conservation group. Since 2005, over 200 speakers have presented talks in the series. Typically, the audience primarily consists of FMNH curators, collection managers, postdoctoral researchers, and graduate students, although faculty and students from Chicago-area colleges and universities, museum docents, and other museum staff sometimes attend as well. For more information on the seminar series, to suggest a speaker, or if you are coming from outside of the museum and need access to the seminar room, contact John Terrell (Anthropology), Matt von Konrat (Botany), Ken Angielczyk (Geology), or Margaret Thayer (Zoology).

Be sure to check this page regularly for additions and updates to the schedule.

Winter/Spring 2013

Jan. 2: Dr. Brett Scheffers. National University of Singapore/James Cook University. A New Dimension to Biogeography: Global Warming "Flattens" Tropical Forests. Lecture Hall II.

Jan. 9: No Seminar.

Jan. 16: No Seminar.

Jan 23: No Seminar.

Jan. 30: No Seminar.

Feb. 6: Dr. Tyler Lyson. National Museum of Natural History. The Origin of turtles and Their Enigmatic Shell: Insights from Morphology, Molecules, and Development. Lecture Hall II.

Feb. 13: Dr. Daniel Block. Chicago State University. Community Geography, Food Deserts and the Power of Maps. Lecture Hall II.

Feb. 20: Dr. Derek Sikes. University of Alaska, Fairbanks. Sampling Alaska's Fauna: Kasatochi Volcano, Ecosystem Reassembly, and Arctic Spider Diversity. Lecture Hall II.

Feb. 27: Dr. Michael Habib. University of Southern California. Mesozoic Sky Mastery: Flight and Gigantism in Pterosauria. Lecture Hall II.

March 6: Dr. Marcial Escudero. Field Museum of Natural History and Morton Arboretum. Chromosome Evolution and Diversification in Flowering Plants, Focusing on Holocentric Organisms. Lecture Hall II.

March 13: Dr. Alan Morris. University of Cape Town. Coming to America: Human Skeletons from Africa in American Museums. Lecture Hall II.

March 20: No Seminar.

March 27: No Seminar.

April 3: No Seminar.

April 10: Dr. Andrew Davis. University of Chicago. Stardust in the Laboratory. Lecture Hall II.

April 17: No Seminar.

April: 24: No Seminar.

May 1:  Dr. Michel Brunet. Collège de France. Early Hominids. Lecture Hall II.

May 8: Dr. William Clemens. University of California, Berkeley. From T. rex to Asteroid Impact and Beyond (1901-2013): Studies of the Paleontology and Geology of the Hell Creek and Tullock Formations in Northeastern Montana. Lecture Hall II.

May 15: Dr. Thomas Olszewski. Texas A&M. The Permian Reef of West Texas: A Deep Time Case Study of How Complex Ecological Communities Respond to Environmental Change. Lecture Hall II.

May 22: Dr. Peter Raven. Missouri Botanical Garden. Strategies for Conservation in a Changing World. Lecture Hall I.

May 29: Dr. Dave Clarke. University of Illinois at Chicago & Field Museum of Natural History. Biodiversity and Biogeography of Rove Beetles in the South Temperate Region. Lecture Hall II. 

June 5: Dr. Larisa DeSantis. Vanderbilt University. Revealing Paleoecology, Paleobiology, and Mammalian Responses to Climate Change During the Pleistocene. Zoology Classroom.

Other Recent Speakers

Fall 2012

Zhe-Xi Luo

John Taylor

María de los Angeles Herrera Campos

Larry Heaney

Grant Gallard

Erika Edwards

Joshua Bell

Christian Sidor

Jeremy Beaulieu

Bruce McCune

Ilona Bausch

Philip Millhouse

Sarah Mathews

Zhiwei Liu

Winter/Spring 2012

May Berenbaum

Rebecca Rowe

Mark Golitko

John Palmer

Naomi Pierce

Mitch Hendrickson

Douglas Boyer

Carl Alwmark

Douglas Boldender

Lisa Lucero

George Wilson

Paul Marek

Mathew Wedel

Sandra Carlson

Audrey Bouvier

Daniel Ksepka

Brian Fisher

Robert Stuebing

Robert Sussman

Valerie Clark