I am extremely honored to receive this award from the Paleontological Society and I am just sorry that I cannot be here to receive it in person.
Like many of you, I was interested in paleontology and evolution in some form or another from an early age, but a key inspiration for me was reading Stephen Jay Gould’s ‘Wonderful Life’ (1989, W.W. Norton) and so it is especially rewarding to receive this award exactly 50 years after Gould.
My interest in paleontological research was first nurtured during my undergraduate studies, during which I worked on Cenozoic echinoderms with Charlotte Jeffery at the University of Liverpool. In a key ‘sliding doors’ moment in my life, I came dangerously close to continuing to work on echinoderms for my Ph.D., but instead I stumbled into a Ph.D. on sauropod dinosaurs at University College London, where I worked with Paul Upchurch and Paul Barrett from The Natural History Museum. The two Pauls, or Paul2, continue to be two of the best mentors I could have had and I thank them for their support and friendship over the years, as well as their roles in nominating me for this award. I do occasionally wonder what might have laid in store for me had I gone down the echinoderm path though…
Others that have played a key role in supporting me at various stages, including nominating me for this award, include Richard Butler, Roger Benson, Paul Bown, Matt Carrano, Kristi Curry Rogers, Susie Maidment, Joanna Morgan, Pat O’Connor, Diego Pol, and Erin Saupe, and I want to say a huge thanks to all of them, as well as all of the other colleagues that I have worked with. It has been a pleasure to work with diverse colleagues from all continents, getting to know them and experience their cultures as part of that. Like the diversity of groups on which our community works, the diversity of who we work with also enriches us.
Probably the most rewarding aspect of getting to the career stage when you might receive this kind of award is all of the people that you have had a chance to mentor and support yourself. I have been lucky to already have had an array of wonderful students and postdocs in my group, from those that are now in or close to their first academic jobs, to current Ph.D. students. From each of them, I have learned something new and it has enhanced my understanding of our subject and led me into entirely new research directions.
I would like to thank my parents for encouraging me while I was growing up, including taking me to a mind-blowing dinosaur exhibition at age eight, and for supporting me to go to university, which was unheard of in my family until then. Lastly, I thank my wife, Laura, who has pretty much zero interest in palaeontology, but who supports me and keeps me grounded, regardless.
Thank you all.
