Paul Brinkman

Bio

I have long been a museum junkie with overlapping interests in the sciences and the humanities. Born in Chicago, I haunted the Field Museum in my youth, then worked for several years as a collections assistant and fossil preparator in its Geology Department. I graduated from Augustana College with a B.A. degree in history and a minor in geology. A chance encounter with the grinning skull of a fossil oreodont on a White River badlands summer field course got me hooked on paleontology. Later, I completed a Ph.D. in history of science at the University of Minnesota. A bibliophile and an avid traveler, I am equally at home in the library or in the field.

Area(s) of Expertise

History of science, especially vertebrate paleontology and geology; museum history; Charles Darwin and other nineteenth and early twentieth century naturalists