Professor
Susan Marie Kidwell
University of Chicago
Paleontologist; Educator
Area
Biological Sciences
Specialty
Evolution and Ecology
Elected
2002
Dr. Susan Marie Kidwell is the William Rainey Harper Professor in Geophysical Sciences at the University of Chicago. Kidwell is known for her groundbreaking work on fossil preservation that has transformed our view of how the history of life is encoded in the rock record. Her studies have revealed the fidelity of the fossil record, thereby yielding powerful insights about the evolution and ecology of ancient life on Earth. Kidwell has combined geological fieldwork, laboratory experiments, and measurements in modern environments to investigate how the fossil record forms and how best to use it to understand the past and anticipate the future of today’s biodiversity. In comparative analyses along environmental gradients and across geologic time, she determined the major controls on how and where marine life becomes preserved, providing a strategy for extracting the most reliable data from the fossil record. Kidwell’s research has also changed a fundamental assumption about postmortem preservation of skeletal remains, fostering the new field of conservation paleobiology, which uses the youngest part of the fossil record to determine the baseline conditions of modern-day ecosystems and evaluate the effects humans have had on biodiversity. Kidwell is widely recognized for her work, receiving accolades such as an NSF Presidential Young Investigator Award, the Schuchert Prize, the Mary Clark Thompson Medal, and fellowship in the American Association for the Advancement of Science and the Paleontological Society in addition to her American Academy of Arts and Sciences membership. Her publications appear in journals such as Geology, Paleobiology, and Science.
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