Daniel Ksepka, with a doctorate in earth and environmental studies from Columbia University, will join the Bruce Museum in Greenwich as its curator of science in June.
Ksepka spent five years in residence at the American Museum of Natural History in New York City, where he performed his dissertation research on the fossil record of penguins and gained experience in the curation and study of natural history objects including fossils, skeletal materials, skins and geological specimens. His personal blog, titled “March of the Fossil Penguins,” attracts more than 50,000 visitors per year.
Ksepka recently contributed to several museum exhibitions, including the traveling “Race to the End of the Earth” and “Mythical Beasts” exhibitions at the natural history museum and “Polar Palooza” at the North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences.
Ksepka is also a popular speaker and writer. He has been a featured speaker at the Nature Research Center at the North Carolina museum, the Carnegie Museum of Natural History in Pittsburgh and Chicago”™s Field Museum. In addition to more than 30 formal peer-reviewed research papers, he has written articles for popular science magazines including Scientific American, American Scientist and Dig.
Science and natural history have been integral to the Bruce Museum”™s mission since the Museum”™s origin. A wealthy textile merchant and member of the New York Cotton Exchange, Robert Moffat Bruce (1822-1909) gave his property to the town of Greenwich in 1908, stipulating the building be used as “a natural history, historical and art museum for the benefit of the public.”
“We are delighted that Daniel Ksepka is joining the curatorial staff at the Bruce,” said Peter C. Sutton, executive director of the Bruce Museum. “Daniel comes to us not only with a vast body of knowledge but also with a great deal of creativity and enthusiasm. He is already planning some exciting new science exhibitions for the museum.”
