Bruce S. Lieberman
American paleontologist / From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Bruce Smith Lieberman (born in 1966 in New York City) is an American paleontologist.
Bruce S. Lieberman | |
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Born | 1966 |
Nationality | American |
Alma mater | Harvard University |
Scientific career | |
Fields | Paleontology, Paleoecology, Biogeography |
Lieberman received his A.B 1988 summa cum laude and Phi Beta Kappa from Harvard University and Stephen Jay Gould was his undergraduate advisor.[1] He received a Master's in 1991 and a Doctorate,[2] in 1994 from Columbia University, and Niles Eldredge was his graduate advisor.[1][3] During graduate school he was based at the American Museum of Natural History. He did a 2-year post-doctoral fellowship with Elisabeth Vrba at Yale University and a 2-year post-doctoral fellowship with Andrew Knoll at Harvard University. Since 1998 he has been on the faculty at the University of Kansas where he is a professor in the Department of Ecology & Evolutionary Biology,[4] and a Senior Curator in the University of Kansas Natural History Museum & Biodiversity Institute.[5] He is also Director of the Paleontological Institute and editor-in-chief of the Treatise on Invertebrate Paleontology.[6] He spent a year serving as a program officer at the National Science Foundation.[7]
His research especially focuses on macroevolution,[8][9][10][11] and he has considered various topics in this area including support for punctuated equilibrium[12] and the related issue of mechanisms causing stasis,[13][14][15] the evidence for species selection,[16][17] and the nature of evolutionary radiations.[18][19] Other topics he has considered in his research include mass extinctions,[20][21][22][23][24] trilobites,[25][26] the Cambrian explosion,[27][28][29] paleoecology,[30] phylogenetics,[31] and biogeography.[32][33][34] He has been involved with the digitization of invertebrate paleontology collections,[35] including helping to develop apps for fossil identification.[36][37][38] In 2002 he received the Charles Schuchert Award from the Paleontological Society.[39][40] Graduate students advised by him include Alycia Stigall, Erin Saupe, and Cori Myers.[1] Post-doctoral scholars advised by him include Luke Strotz, Michelle Casey, Jonathan Hendricks, Claudia Nunez-Penichet, Rachel Moore, and Rhi LaVine.[1]