UW’s Ellen Currano Named a Paleontological Society Fellow

Ellen Currano, a professor in the University of Wyoming’s Department of Botany and Department of Geology and Geophysics, was recently named a Fellow by the Paleontological Society.

A white woman with long brown hair that's pulled back holding an infant in front of a rock with dark lines through it. — Ellen Currano, a professor in the University of Wyoming’s Department of Botany and Department of Geology and Geophysics, was recently named a Fellow by the Paleontological Society. Here, Currano poses with her daughter, Diana, with a plant fossil in the background. (Gregg Randolph Photo)

Fellows are members of the Paleontological Society who have made far-reaching contributions to paleontology through research, teaching, or service to the profession. Recipients of the Paleontological Society Medal and the Charles Schuchert Award automatically become Fellows if they have not previously been elected to fellowship.

“I am so honored and humbled that my name now appears on a list with ‘famous’ paleontologists like Stephen Jay Gould and Estella Leopold, as well as paleontologists who mentored me and who I wanted to be when I grew up,” Currano says. “I am grateful to all of those who believed that a girl from Chicago with big dreams, but little outdoor experience, could become a successful field scientist. Now, it’s my turn to help the next generation achieve their dreams.”

Fellow appointments are for life, and her responsibility will be to vote for future Fellow candidates, Currano says. She will receive a plaque from the awards ceremony, which took place Sept. 22 as part of the Geological Society of America meeting in Anaheim, Calif.

“Four new Fellows get elected each year, and this is the first time that I was nominated,” Currano says, “Bonnie Jacobs led my nomination. Unfortunately, I was unable to travel to receive my award in person due to having an infant.”

Jacobs is a professor emerita at Southern Methodist University.

About the Paleontological Society

The Paleontological Society is an international nonprofit organization devoted exclusively to the advancement of the science of paleontology: invertebrate and vertebrate paleontology, micropaleontology, and paleobotany. The society was founded in 1908 in Baltimore and was incorporated in April 1968 in the District of Columbia.

The society has several membership categories, including regular, student, and retired. Members, representing 40 countries, consist of professional paleontologists, academicians, science editors, earth-science teachers, museum specialists, and undergraduate and graduate students and postdoctoral scholars, as well as avocational paleontologists.

This story was originally published on UW News.