Category: Video

Tags

Published: January 22, 2015

Defining the "Edges" of Life On Earth

William Stanley, Director, Collections Center, Gantz Family Collections Center

Chicago Ideas Week (CIW) is an innovative gathering of ideas and presentations to innovate and fuel new ways to look at the world. Past speakers include David Axelrod, Hillary Clinton, Naomi Judd, George Lucas and Reverend Al Sharpton. Invited to the 2014 CIW Edison Talks, Bill Stanley, Director of the Collections Center at the Field, used specimens to explain how study of the diverse and unique library of material housed at the Museum constantly re-defines our understanding of earth.  Of all the specimens and artifacts within the Field Museum, less than one percent are on display and available for public viewing. The vast majority of the collections housed at the Field are the subject of scientific inquiry and study by scientists from all over the world. Because of this, these collections define the “edges” of life on earth, past and present, and are used to predict the future of the cultural and biological diversity of this planet of ours.  These “edges” constantly change, as new collections-based research build upon, re-evaluate or even refute older studies.

William Stanley
Director, Collections Center

Remembering Bill Stanley

William Stanley The Field Museum mourns the passing of William Stanley, who passed away on October 6, 2015. Bill was the Director of the Gantz Family Collections Center, and began work at the Museum in 1989.

Trustees, staff, and volunteers of The Field Museum send their deepest condolences to the family of Bill Stanley and mourn the loss of their colleague and friend.

On November 6, 2015, The Field Museum hosted a memorial service to honor and celebrate Bill's life and work (recording available).

Bill Stanley studied the natural history, biogeography, taxonomy and evolution of mammals of eastern Africa, with emphasis on faunas of montane areas within Tanzania. This long-term program involved systematic faunal surveys of shrews and rodents in almost every montane unit within Tanzania, including Mahale Mountains, each of the Eastern Arc Mountains, Southern Highlands including Mt. Rungwe and the Livingstone Mountains and Kilimanjaro, Meru and Ngorongoro of the Northern Highlands. Several new species of shrews and rodents were described as a result, and initial investigations of the biogeography of these faunas have been published.

Other groups Stanley researched include bats, particularly on islands off the Tanzanian coast, and primates, particularly Rungwecebus kipunji, which he studied with Tim Davenport, Sophy Machaga, Noah Mpunga, Link Olson and Eric Sargis. A major emphasis has been the creation and maintenance of a bilingual (English and Kiswahili) website to aid Tanzanian researchers in identification of and education about Tanzanian mammals. The site can be found at www.fieldmuseum.org/tanzania.

Related content,Check this out