Paleontologist and Professor of Anthropology Stephen Chester from the School of Natural and Behavioral Sciences has been working for years with colleagues from the Denver Museum of Nature & Science and others to tell the story of how the world and life recovered after the asteroid impact that wiped out the dinosaurs 66 million years ago. Now, Chester and the team representing nine institutions have been awarded a prestigious collaborative research grant from the National Science Foundation’s Frontier Research in Earth Sciences program that will help support this ongoing work. The nearly $3 million collaborative research grant, led by the Denver Museum of Nature & Science where Chester is a Research Associate, will also allow the team to train undergraduates in all aspects of research, and to share their findings in classrooms, museum exhibits and outreach at their home institutions to reach audiences spanning many ages and backgrounds. Stephen Chester “This NSF funding will support half a decade of exciting research and paid undergraduate assistantships here at Brooklyn College, and I already look forward to incorporating our results into my courses in the Department of Anthropology and the STAR Early College High School program,” Chester said. The collaborative research grant will fund important work in paleontology across the Rocky Mountain region in the western United States, where Chester plans to continue bringing Brooklyn College students for paleontological fieldwork to study ancient life. Not only will this project help Chester and the large, multidisciplinary team of scientists understand the evolutionary history of many modern plants and animals, but it will also provide unique insights into the current biodiversity crisis facing the planet as ancient extinctions can teach about the extinctions happening today. This ambitious five-year research project is being led by the Denver Museum of Nature & Science’s Curator of Vertebrate Paleontology, Dr. Tyler Lyson. Read more about Chester’s related research here: Assistant Professor of Anthropology Stephen Chester Part of Team That Unearths Rise of Mammals in Groundbreaking Discovery Associate Professor Stephen Chester Helps Answer: When Did Our Extinct Mammal Relatives Start to Get So Smart?
