New Shelves for Earth Science
November 2011
Earth sciences curator Pat Druckenmiller stands in the new storage area purchased with funds from a National Science Foundation grant.
Pat Druckenmiller holds a fossil collected by Otto Geist at Cape Thompson.
The curators at the University of Alaska Museum of the North have collectively won more than a million dollars' worth of grants for storage facility upgrades from the National Science Foundation.
In the six years since the museum expansion was completed, four projects have been funded, including grants written by Stefanie Ickert-Bond, Link Olson, and Derek Sikes. "We all mentor each other," Olson said.
These wooden shelves have been upgraded.
Most recently, earth sciences curator Pat Druckenmiller received a $392,486 grant from the NSF’s biological research collections program. Druckenmiller said the upgrades will help bring the facility into the 21st Century. “These pieces deserve the best conditions."
Previously mammoth bones and mastodon thighs were stored on open wooden shelves. The new system features trays on smooth tracks, carriages and compactors that rotate, and lots of space.
