Bownocker Lecture Series
Derek E.G. Briggs is the Frederick William Beinecke Professor of Geology and Geophysics and Director of Yale’s Peabody Museum of Natural History. He is also the Curator in Charge of Invertebrate Paleontology at the Museum and director of the Yale Institute for Biospheric Studies. He received his B.A. degree at Trinity College, Dublin, and his M.A. and Ph.D. from the University of Cambridge, graduating in 1977. He began his academic career at Goldsmiths' College, University of London (1977-1985). In 1985, he moved to the Department of Earth Sciences at the University of Bristol, where he served as chair from 1997-2001. In 2003, Dr. Briggs assumed his current position at Yale University. At Yale, Dr. Briggs teaches courses in the “History of Life” and “Extraordinary Glimpses of Past Life.”Dr. Briggs has published extensively on various aspects of paleontology, including writing and editing more than 6 books. The primary concentration of his research has been the taphonomy and evolutionary significance of exceptionally preserved fossils; decay and mineralization, molecular preservation, and the Cambrian radiation. His early work concentrated on the Burgess Shale (Cambrian) of British Columbia, Canada. However, his work on exceptionally preserved biotas also includes the Silurian of Wisconsin and England, the Devonian of Germany, the Carbon-iferous of Ireland, the Jurassic of Antarctica, and the Cretaceous of Spain and Mexico. His research has involved discovery of the conodont animal, arthropod phylogeny, preservation of fossil feathers and eggs, the biochemistry of fossils, biomolecule pre-servation, and many other topics.
Dr. Briggs has received numerous awards including election as a Fellow of the Royal Society (1999) and the Royal Irish Academy in 2003. Additional awards include the Italian prize for paleontology (Premio Capo d'Orlando) (2000), the Lyell Medal of the Geological Society of London (2000), the Boyle Medal from the Royal Dublin Society/Irish Times in (2001), and a Humboldt Research Award (2008). Dr. Briggs has served terms as President of both the Palaeontological Association from 2002-2004 and the Paleon-tological Society from 2006-2008.