Neil L. Shubin Dr. Neil Shubin started as the Provost of Academic Affairs at the Field Museum in July 2006. He has general responsibility for Academic Affairs, with a focus on external relationships and strategic direction of the research program. Shubin trained at Columbia, Harvard and Berkeley, he received an A.M. (Hon.), from the University of Pennsylvania in 1996, a Ph.D. in 1987 from Harvard University, an A.M. in 1985 from Harvard University, and an A.B. in 1982 from Columbia University. Shubin is also a paleontologist and the Associate Dean of Organismal and Evolutionary Biology, and the Robert R. Bensley Professor at the University of Chicago, and thus brings a unique perspective to his work. He has found new fossils that change the way we think about many of the key transitions in evolution: from the reptile-mammal transition, the water-land transformation, and the origin of frogs, salamanders, turtles, flying reptiles. These discoveries have emerged from his expeditions to Greenland, the High Arctic of Canada, Argentina, China, Morocco, Nova Scotia, and the deserts of the U.S. His research seeks to understand the mechanisms behind the evolutionary origin of new anatomical features and faunas transformations. Over the past fifteen years, he has developed expeditionary research programs in Canada, Africa, the continental United States, Asia, and Greenland. These expeditions have led to new insights on the origin of major groups of vertebrates (mammals, frogs, crocodiles, tetrapods, and sarcopterygian fish). Shubin startled the world on April 6, 2006 with the announcement in the journal Nature of the discovery of Tiktaalik “a mosaic of primitive fish and derived amphibian,” that was front-page news in newspapers around the world. Media appearances include interviews on national nightly and morning news (ABC News Nightline, CNN, ABC Nightly News, NBC Today Show, NPR, BBC, etc.), documentaries (Nova, A&E special presentations, central focus of PBS Evolution series episode “The Great Transformations”, PBS Dinosaur Series, Animal Planet, etc.), and major print media including the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, The Economist, Time, US News and international outlets. Shubin is the author of numerous scientific papers, including over 20 in the prestigious journals Science and Nature. He has received numerous fellowships and awards including a Miller Research Fellowship, Guggenheim Fellowship, The Berlin Prize and ABC News Person of the Week.