Dr. Brenda Hunda, curator of invertebrate paleontology at the Cincinnati Museum Center (CMC), has won the 2025 Pojeta Award for her exceptional contributions in paleontological outreach through design and installation of the CMC’s “Ancient Worlds Hiding in Plain Sight” exhibit, securing threatened research collections from other midwestern institutions and making the CMC a major national fossil repository, and for serving two terms as editor of the Journal of Paleontology during a time of particular challenge.

Cincinnati’s abundant trove of Late Ordovician fossils has made the city prominent in the history of paleontological research in North America. In the nineteenth century, it nurtured young hobbyist naturalists, including Schuchert, Ulrich, S.A. Miller, and the James brothers, later providing some of these with prominent professional careers in institutions spread across the United States. This naturalist tradition endures with the famed Cincinnati Dry Dredgers, arguably the nation’s leading regional group for avocational paleontologists, along with similar groups such as the Kentucky Paleontological Society. Yet despite this history and Cincinnati’s fabulous art moderne Museum Center (bearing ample gallery capacity to complement its recently opened dinosaur hall), Cincinnati’s Ordovician fossil treasury has long remained hidden from the public eye. This situation persisted until the fall of 2023 when, under Brenda’s leadership and supervision, a new major exhibit opened in the CMC that illustrates, explains, and celebrates not only the region’s unique Cincinnatian fossil heritage but also those persons, past and present, who have contributed most to our understanding of this history. This exhibit has won uniform praise from all stakeholders. It takes exceptional skill to emerge from a project of this kind with all parties feeling satisfied and positive, and Brenda has achieved this. At long last, Cincinnati has the display and scientific explanation worthy of its exceptional heritage—and no one is better at explaining this than Brenda herself: https://www.cincymuseum.org/sciencemuseum/ancient-worlds-hiding-in-plain-sight/.

Behind the public face of the museum lie the scientific collections and academic resources. Despite the CMC being able to trace its lineage back to 1818, acquisition of its substantial holding of quality research collections in paleontology began only in the 1990s, through the transfer of the University of Cincinnati’s collections, supported by the National Science Foundation (NSF) and generous local donors. Further and complementary enlargement was achieved by Brenda through the receipt of the collections of the University of Minnesota, again assisted by a substantial NSF grant. As a result, the CMC’s paleontology holdings are now among the largest in the nation, a fact celebrated by the recent purchase of a new facility, located adjacent to the Museum Center, that will be a dedicated repository with capacity for substantial additional collections growth in the future and facilities for visiting scientists.

Shortly after Cambridge University Press became the publisher of the Journal of Paleontology, Brenda and Jisuo Jin took over as editors. Brenda assumed first co-editorship and later the editor-in-chief role at a time of transition for the journal. After successfully smoothing the immediate concerns, under Brenda’s management the journal’s production of six issues per year (plus additional memoirs), with each issue containing between 15 and 20 articles, thrived. Her editorship saw the journal through 35 issues, totaling some 600 published papers, and maintained high standards throughout—a key reason why the journal remains a coveted destination.

From the outset of her nomination for this award, it was clear to co-nominator Brian Pratt and me that Brenda was an exceptional candidate, but we were quite unprepared for the privilege of seeing her through the eyes of so wide a range of letter writers and learning why she shines so brightly in all of them. Congratulations, Brenda, for winning this award so evidently deservedly.