Meet our Senior Curator of the Micropalaeontology Collections

?With so many fantastic team members across the Museum, we want to showcase some of them! In this series, find out more about work and life at the museum.

Next up, we talk to our Senior Curator of the Micropalaeontology Collections, Steve Stukins, about the collections, the fascinating projects he’s been a part of, and what it’s like being the ‘custodian’ of the collections.

1.??????What is the main purpose of your role?

My role is to be the ‘custodian’ of the micropalaeontology collection at the NHM. This entails all sorts, from cataloguing and databasing; advocating their usage and allowing access to visiting researchers; doing research myself and also adding to the collection. Micropalaeontology is a term that encompass a large number of different groups of organisms that ‘usually’ requires the use of microscopes or other imaging equipment to look at. Our collection of microfossils includes foraminifera (small, single-celled creatures that live mainly in the oceans and form little shells) and pollen and spores from plants and fungi, along with many other types of tiny organisms.

2.???????What does a typical day look like?

Besides responding to emails and attending meetings, my days can be really varied. I could have visitors to show specimens to, I could be having meetings about the new facility we are planning and how to move the collections and facilities there (https://www.nhm.ac.uk/press-office/press-releases/natural-history-museum-new-research-centre-university-of-reading.html), I could be collaborating on research projects, inputting data about our collections (either new acquisitions or legacy) into the collections management database, and more………

3.??????What are the most enjoyable and challenging parts of your role?

Enjoyable – must be fieldwork or presenting at conferences, the really ‘sciencey’ parts! The challenging parts must be feeling like the crux between many strands of the museum and acting on behalf of the collections. Others are constantly wanting information about, or access to, the collections, and communicating this while trying to deal with the almighty task of looking after and cataloguing the (at times) centuries old materials, is testing. There are a range of stakeholders - internal and external scientific researchers; exhibitions; outreach; media; students; external enquiries from a range of different people from both science and the arts; funding bodies; gov’t policy…..the list feels endless!

4.??????What do you like about working for the Museum?

The opportunities that working for a globally recognised institution brings. I’ve worked with so many different people, in different places, on different projects, that I would never have been able to do otherwise. One of my most favourite and successful projects was to take some museum pollen collections to the ESRF (European Synchrotron Radiation Facility) in Grenoble and work in a fantastic, inter-disciplinary team. We published the first reported biological nanofoam https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/sciadv.abd0892

5.???????How did you get into the role?

I initially arrived on a 3 year role to prove the worth of having micropalaeontology specialists at the NHM, and in 2015, this was made into a permanent role as Senior Curator of Micropalaeontology.

6.??????What is the most interesting/weird thing you’ve learned while working at the Museum?

There are so many interesting and weird things that are learned at and about the Museum. However, just this morning, I was looking through the collections and found a slide with specimens of microscopic foraminifera that were collected in 1860 from the shell of a turtle as it was swimming in the Bay of Bengal. It’s snippets like this that conjure the imagination!

7.??????Do you have any fun or special memories you have made while working at the Museum?

There are lots of memories! The staff parties are usually great fun, what happens at the parties…