We are a world-class visitor attraction and leading science research centre. We use the Museum's unique collections and our unrivalled expertise to tackle the biggest challenges facing the world today. We care for more than 80 million objects spanning billions of years and welcome more than five million visitors annually and 16 million visits to our website.
Today the Museum is more relevant and influential than ever. By attracting people from a range of backgrounds to work for us, we can continue to look at the world with fresh eyes and find new ways of doing things.
We employ 900 staff in a variety of roles, all united by our vision of a future where people and planet thrive. We need everyone to have the passion and drive to help us with our mission to create advocates for our planet and inspire millions to care about the natural world.
Fossil Reptiles Curator.
Embedded within the Vertebrates & Anthropology Curatorial Division, this is an important role in a world-renowned institution with a strong scientific mission and public profile.
The successful applicant will join a large science group composed of approximately 300 scientists, in an institution that houses some of the largest, most significant scientific collections in the world. The Museum is also home to an internationally important natural history library, a suite of advanced analytical and imaging facilities, and offers the opportunity to communicate science to national and international audiences.
The Curator will be responsible for acquiring, curating and making specimens within their area of responsibility in Fossil Reptiles available to facilitate research, teaching, and exhibitions. These collections are frequently accessed by internal and external researchers and are heavily used for the NHM’s public engagement activities, including permanent exhibitions, temporary and touring exhibitions, and outreach events for the general public and media.
Applications are open to candidates in the field of vertebrate palaeontology, with particular expertise in an area relevant to fossil reptiles.
About you
- You should possess both expertise in the anatomy and taxonomy of fossil reptiles and/or amphibians and experience of working with museum collections
- A strong knowledge and/or experience of databases or information management systems for museum collections would be highly desirable as would the ability to work with datasets.
- A postgraduate qualification (e.g. MSc) relevant to vertebrate palaeontology is required for this post.
- You should have experience of successful delivery of projects as a team member and be competent with relevant IT software such as Microsoft Word, Excel etc.
- The ideal candidate will have the ability to develop and maintain effective relationships with a variety of stakeholders (internal and external researchers, public engagement, visitors, students, volunteers)
- Experience of communicating to a range of different audiences, both in writing and verbally is important as is the ability to travel between Museum sites. Knowledge and/or experience of three-dimensional imaging techniques are desirable
Fish Curator
Embedded within the Vertebrate Collections Division, the Senior Curator in Charge (SCiC) of Fish will lead and manage a curatorial team (currently two full-time collections managers) ensuring best practice in collections care and providing a world-class collection of natural history specimens in Ichthyology. Fish specimens are to be acquired, curated and used and made available to facilitate research, teaching, training, reference and exhibitions. An expert in their field of collections-based science, the SCiC of Fish will demonstrate a high level of scientific scholarship (e.g., systematics, evolution, organismal biology). They will conduct and support collections-based research and attempt to secure external funding for that purpose. The SCiC of Fish will work with other SCiCs across the Vertebrates Division, and will line manage other Curators and Senior Curators within the Division. The SCiC of Fish is in turn line managed by and is expected to support the Principal Curator in Charge of Vertebrates.
The NHM Fish Collection is based at South Kensington, though the SCiC of Fish will be expected to work closely also with NHM staff at Tring and in the near future Harwell. This is an exciting opportunity to lead and integrate ichthyological curation and collections-based research in one of the World’s largest and most important fish collections.
About you
- Qualifications - Relevant higher qualification (MSc or relevant postgraduate experience is essential, a PhD is desirable), or equivalent experience, with an emphasis on taxonomy or systematics and the use of natural history collections in science.
- Skills and experience required for the role:
- In depth knowledge and experience of collections management, care and development for ichthyological collections
- Experience of ichthyological research at an international level
- Depth of knowledge of a collection, its associated literature and its systematics/taxonomy with the ability to apply and discriminate taxonomic/diagnostic characters for identification and organisation
- Proven ability to effectively lead and manage curatorial or other science teams
- Track record in publishing scientific articles as lead author and experience of taking an executive role in an international society and/or for an academic/professional journal
- Track record in supervising PhD and/or Masters students and/or teaching/training
- Knowledge or awareness of major current questions in organismal biology, especially ichthyology
- Demonstrable working knowledge and ideally a practical experience of associated information management systems for collections (e.g. EMu)
- In depth understanding of collections management systems for documenting the practical implementation of core collections management processes, e.g. object tracking, loans etc.
- Experience of successful delivery of collections/curatorial projects
- Excellent communication skills; presenting, writing
- Ability to develop and maintain effective relationships with a variety of stakeholders (internal and external researchers, public engagement, visitors, students, volunteers)
