The Curatorial Team has Many Jobs:

Collecting: The Gottesman Hall of Planet Earth is unique because the majority of the rocks were collected specifically for this exhibition. (Usually, the Museum's permanent exhibitions are built around pre-existing collections.) Gathering these key specimens has been the curatorial team's foremost responsibility, requiring dozens of expeditions over the past two years.

Developing the cientific content of the exhibition: the curatorial team for the Gottesman Hall of Planet Earth is responsible for all of its samples, models, graphics, interactive displays, and text. The team works in partnership with the Museum's exhibition department and with Ralph Appelbaum Associates, a museum exhibition design firm.

Collaborating with other institutions: Scientists on the curatorial team have partnered with colleagues from many other scientific institutions, so that the new exhibition will reflect the collective expertise of the field of earth sciences.

The earth scientists who make up the Museum's curatorial team are pictured here. Click on a photo to hear their stories about collecting for the Gottesman Hall of Planet Earth: