Career Options
A tale of two young associate curators at the ROMWalking with dinosaursIf a museum is like a massive book that tells the tales of our historical milestones, cultural trends and natural environment, then curators are the engaging storytellers who bring those stories to life. |
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 [ 2007-10-31 ] |
David Evans in Dinosaur Provincial Park, Alberta. Recruited this year at age 27, Evans is the youngest curator the ROM has ever hired. (Photo courtesy of David Evans)
For Dr. David Evans, associate curator of vertebrate paleontology at the Royal Ontario Museum, the story he’s trying to share with the public, particularly children, is that of the magnificent dinosaurs who roamed the earth millions of years ago.
“Because kids are interested in paleontology, it’s an important field that allows you to get kids interested in the sciences at a young age,” Evans says.
LOADS OF ENERGY
Recruited this year at age 27, he’s thought to be the youngest curator the ROM has ever hired. His youth may give him an edge, however, for his job is far from a 9-to-5 and he needs loads of energy to handle his many competing priorities.
Research is high up on the list of priorities, sometimes in the lab he manages — where he also oversees a research technician and assistant — or out in the field, usually in the fossil-rich Alberta Badlands. Next year he may venture to the Canadian Arctic, the Yukon and Mongolia. If he’s lucky, he’ll make spectacular finds he can bring to display at the ROM for a while.
“I love studying dinosaurs and trying to understand how they lived, how they evolved and what relevance that has to the problems we’re having today, such as climate change and extinction,” he says.
Evans also has a hand in organizing the new James and Louise Temerty Galleries of the Age of Dinosaurs. Launching on Dec. 14 and housed in the renowned Michael-Lee Chin Crystal space, the permanent galleries will showcase the ROM’s superior collection of dinosaur skeletons, some dating back 75 million years, along with fascinating fossils from birds, mammals, insects and plants of the Jurassic and Cretaceous periods.
Participating in conferences related to the field, applying for grants to support his research and browsing the latest related scientific papers are also all things he does on an ongoing basis. Somehow he also finds time to work as a teaching assistant in vertebrate evolution at the University of Toronto.
It’s sparking the public’s imagination in dinosaurs that he loves most: he gives behind-the-scenes tours at the ROM for school children, provides commentary for documentaries, gives public talks and much more.
But he cautions that his line of work takes motivation to manage the long hours and a strong academic inclination — Evans completed his PhD in Ecology and Evolutionary Biology at U of T. You also need to be dedicated to being a productive researcher.
“I’m always working, there’s always another deadline, I’m constantly reading about new developments or reading scientific papers, but because this is what I love to do, I don’t even think about it. This is my dream job,” he says.
Kimberly Tait feels much the same way. As associate curator of mineralogy at the ROM, Tait oversees a collection of 70,000 minerals, meteorites and gems.
“ABSOLUTELY NUTS”
“When I was a little kid, I would pick up rocks and bring them home to my parents, and they thought I was absolutely nuts,” recalls Tait, 31. “Ever since I was little, I wanted to be a geologist.”
Hired on this past April, Tait is involved in supervising four technicians, recording information about new minerals in a database, preparing them for public viewing and writing explanatory text to accompany them.
Tait is also heavily involved in mineralogy research and regularly travels to leading scientific institutions in the U.S. to do her work.
Through the ROM Explorers Club, which runs regular rock ID clinics for kids, Tait gets to generate public interest in the museum’s collection. She also achieves this goal by speaking regularly to public and private groups.
Currently, she’s hard at work preparing for the Teck Cominco Suite of the Earth Science Galleries to open at the end of 2008. The 65,000 sq. ft. space will feature a mineralogy gallery, a gold and gem room and a Canadian mining hall of fame.
“That’s our time to shine and show off, to show our collection that goes back to 1914. We have minerals from all over the world and have one of best meteorite collections out there,” she says. “Knowing the public is going to come in and see what we do and our samples — it’s very rewarding.”
According to Tait, education — she completed a PhD in geology at the University of Arizona — ample volunteer experience and strong research and people skills are key to getting on the curator career path.
“You need to be a people person and you need to be educated,” Tait says. “Consider volunteering at the museum in the department that interests you to learn more about it.”
Would you ever work for a social or charitable enterprise in the third sector?