Earth scientists

Earth science at the Museum covers a diverse range of subjects, including Mars, mammoths, climate change and human evolution. Meet some of our researchers and curators.

Prof Adrian Lister

Our ice age mammal expert deals with everything from sabre-tooth tigers to mammoths and their modern cousins the elephants.
Dr Julian Pender Hume

Our extinct bird expert can not only describe how the dodo and its cousins lived, but can paint accurate portraits of them too.
Prof Paul Barrett

Our dinosaur detective can look at a skull and tell you everything about how a dinosaur ate, saw and smelled.
Dr Caroline Smith

Our meteorite curator looks after specimens from across the solar system and plans missions to collect more.
Dr Chiara Maria Petrone

Our volcano expert risks eruptions to get inside the minds of volcanoes and find out what makes them tick.
Prof Chris Stringer

Our human origins expert studies bones and artifacts to find out how our ancestors and other human species lived and spread across the world.
Prof Sara Russell

Our extraterrestrial materials expert uses meteorites and dust to probe the early solar system.
Dr Heather Bonney

Our human remains expert can tell a lot about a person's identity and life from their bones.
Dr Joe Michalski

Our Mars expert looks at the surface of Mars and similar environments on Earth to determine how the red planet formed.
Emma Bernard

Our fossil fish curator looks after a huge diversity of creatures over millions of years of Earth history.
Zoë Hughes

Our fossil brachiopod and cephalopod curator collects stunning examples of some of life's most diverse organisms.