Ya Yang and George Weiblen look at plant specimens in the University Herbarium.
The Bell Museum has been around almost as long as the University itself. Founded in 1872, it is beloved by generations of Minnesotans who strolled by its dioramas, participated in its education programs and, in recent years, attended shows in its planetarium. Lots has changed over the years, including five different museum locations, but all along professors of botany and zoology have played a central role in growing the scientific collections and connecting the public with University research.
George Weiblen, a professor in the Department of Plant and Microbial Biology (PMB) and science director of the Bell, has deep ties to the museum. When he joined the faculty in 2001 he also became curator of plants and he’s remained deeply engaged with the collections ever since. He’s one of four CBS faculty with ties to the museum. Professors Ya Yang, Sharon Jansa and Keith Barker also serve as curators. Yang, an associate professor in PMB, is a curator of plants while professor Jansa and associate professor Barker in the Department of Ecology, Evolution and Behavior, are curators of mammals and genetic resources, respectively.
As science director, Weiblen supports faculty, students and staff who are using the collections in specimen-based research. “It's about connecting the research and teaching that goes on in the academic departments to the experience that visitors have in the museum,” he says. He shares his thoughts on how the connection between CBS and the Bell is so important for research, education and engaging the public.
The relationship between the Bell Museum and the College of Biological Sciences goes back to before CBS became a college. Can you talk about that connection?
CBS connections to the museum are made through the organisms we study. The Bell illuminates our connections to the rest of the living world. These are critically important connections given all the environmental and societal challenges we're facing.
The Bell and CBS are part of a larger life sciences ecosystem here at the University. We really have a lot to be proud of in terms of the investments that the institution has made. On the St. Paul campus alone, faculty and students have access to Bell Museum collections affiliated with four different departments, and the living collection of the CBS Conservatory. These resources, along with field stations and outreach centers, make this an amazing place to get an education and study natural history. It's really inspiring.
Bell curators include faculty from both CBS and CFANS. How do curators help advance our education, research and outreach mission?
Curators are uniquely positioned to serve students who want to understand the deep evolutionary connections among living things in the environment. Learning about the diversity of life and all the incredible solutions for survival among different species helps us become better problem solvers, too.
Faculty serving as curators also bring a special kind of expertise and knowledge to their home departments as well. We are in a special position to collaborate and help faculty connect their specific own expertise to natural history in general. We get to draw on our knowledge of diversity to look beyond model system or discipline and ask, "what about looking to this or that species" for something new.
Curators also serve the public by identifying diverse organisms for state agencies and responding to media requests in need of accurate information. This is especially important as we face growing skepticism of science. Skepticism can be healthy and addressing public concerns head on is really important right now as public trust in expertise can no longer be taken for granted.
Part of your role is to guide the development of infrastructure to support the museum’s mission especially as it relates to the collection. Looking forward, what are you most excited about?
New technologies like hyper-spectral imaging to study specimens. CBS graduate student Aaron Lee, who recently defended his Ph.D. thesis with Ya Yang, applied this technique to herbarium specimens. He found that physiological and ecological information about plant growth can be gathered from specimens even more than a hundred years old by measuring how they reflect wavelengths of light that are invisible to the human eye. Aaron is continuing this work as a postdoc at Harvard.
—Stephanie Xenos