A number of GSCAs are available for W13 term in the Herbarium (UMH) and the Museum of Zoology (UMMZ) – see below for details. These are open to all Ph.D. students who have achieved candidacy and they provide training in the knowledge, skills and operational competencies required for research museum function. Most have an identified primary curatorial goal, but all will involve additional training in broad aspects of collection function including specimen acquisitions, loan processing, maintenance of dry- ethanol- or cryo-preserved specimens, public outreach etc.
Applications should be made to the EEB Graduate Program Coordinator Jane Sullivan (janesull@umich.edu) by October 26th. Each application should contain a C.V. and a brief (one paragraph is sufficient) statement of interest, outlining the applicant’s motivation for and interest in a GSCA position. If applicants wish to receive curatorial training for a specific collection, they are strongly encouraged to pre-emptively contact the salient curator(s) and/or collection manager(s).
UMH – Two graduate student curatorial assistant (GSCA) will be involved in developing methods for databasing and georeferencing the vast collection of plant and fungal specimens at the University of Michigan Herbarium. This work will be performed in part to test new methods and generate preliminary data for a large herbarium-based NSF digitization proposal. The student will work closely with curators, collection managers and research scientists, and will also receive training in more traditional curatorial work, including mounting, annotation, and filing of specimens and learning about specimen transactions and record-keeping.
Contact: Curator Chris Dick (cwdick@umich.edu)
UMMZ- Bird Collection (http://www.lsa.umich.edu/
Goal: Inventoring, imaging and proofreading of the bird type collection.
Contact: Collection Manager Janet Hinshaw (jhinshaw@umich.edu) and Acting Curator Diarmaid Ó Foighil (diarmaid@umich.edu)
UMMZ- Fish Collection (http://www.lsa.umich.edu/
Goal: Digital imaging and radiography of type specimens.
Contact: Collection Manager Doug Nelson (dwnelson@umich.edu) and Acting Curator Diarmaid Ó Foighil (diarmaid@umich.edu)
UMMZ- Herpetology Collection
Goal: Develop a trial database of morphological images for automated phenotyping of collection specimens. Position may also include some database-related work, such as georeferencing of holdings in the herpetology collections.
Contact: Curator Dan Rabosky (drabosky@umich.edu) and Collection Manager Greg Schneider (ges@umich.edu).
UMMZ- Insect Collection (http://www.lsa.umich.edu/
Goal: Database imaging & collection survey prior to the upcoming move.
Contact: Collection Manager Mark O’Brien (mfobrien@umich.edu) and Curators Lacey Knowles (knowlesl@umich.edu) & Barry OConnor (bmoc@umich.edu).
UMMZ- Mammal Collection (http://www.lsa.umich.edu/
Goal: Revision of the mammal collection classification scheme prior to upcoming move
Contact: Curators Phil Myers (pmyers@umich.edu) & Priscilla Tucker (ptuck@umich.edu)
UMMZ – Mollusk Collection (http://www.lsa.umich.edu/
Goal: Develop a georeferenced, imaged, online database for freshwater limpet holdings.
Contact: Collection Manager Taehwan Lee (taehwanl@umich.edu) and Curators Tom Duda (tfduda@umich.edu) & Diarmaid Ó Foighil (diarmaid@umich.edu).
