Paleontology
Bringing life to life
Alex Hastings
Philip W. Fitzpatrick Chair of Paleontology
Director and Curator of Paleontology | ahastings@smm.org
Much of Alex's career has focused on sensational ancient reptiles, including horse-hunting crocodiles and colossal snakes. He now studies all areas of paleontology from giant dinosaurs to tiny oysters and is actively engaged in public outreach to share his enthusiasm for the ancient world.
Nicole Dzenowski
Paleontology Lab Manager | ndzenowski@smm.org
With the help of a team of volunteers, Nicole spends most of her time carefully cleaning, stabilizing, and conserving a wide variety of fossil specimens for future research or display. When not in the lab, she can be found doing fieldwork throughout Minnesota or at an outreach event sharing her excitement for the natural world and its long fossil history, inspiring the next generation of paleontologists.
Grace DeVault
Paleontology Collections Assistant | gdevault@smm.org
Grace works primarily with the Science Museum of Minnesota’s Wannagan Creek collection, cataloging all related specimen information and taking pictures of each specimen for the museum’s digital collections. She also coordinates with incoming and outgoing loans and research requests.
Braden Nienaber
Paleontology Collections Assistant | bnienaber@smm.org
Braden manages and maintains primarily the Minnesota Ice Age collection. Most of his work surrounds digitizing all the information associated with Minnesota fossils and ensuring they are cared for properly.