Michael Novacek

Michael J. Novacek is a world-renowned paleontologist and is particularly well known for his contributions to the study of early mammalian species. He received the Roy Chapman Andrews Society Distinguished Explorer's Award for 2003 and the Lowell Thomas Award from the Explorer's Club in 2005. In 1996 Novacek was awarded an honorary Doctor of Philosophy degree from Long Island University.



Michael J. Novacek was born on June 3, 1948, in Evanston, Illinois, United States. He is the son of Albin John and June Shirley Novacek. In 1971 Michael J. Novacek received a Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of California, Los Angeles. In 1973 he obtained a Master of Arts degree from San Diego State University. In 1978 Novacek gained a Doctor of Philosophy degree from the University of California, Berkeley.

From 1976 to 1977 Michael J. Novacek was a lecturer at San Diego State University, an assistant professor from 1977 to 1979, and an associate professor of zoology from 1979 to 1982. From 1983 to 1985 he worked as an assistant curator at the American Museum of Natural History, an associate curator from 1985 to 1989, and was appointed a curator of vertebrate paleontology in 1989. From 1989 to 1995 Novacek served as a vice president and dean of science and has been a provost and senior vice president since 1994. In addition to his duties as Provost, Novacek has served as President of the Society of Systematic Biologists, Chair of the Science Advisory Committee for the Yale University Biospherics Institute, and the Bioadvisory Committee for the National Science Foundation.

His studies concern patterns of evolution and relationships among extinct and extant organisms. His interests have ranged from paleontological evidence to new data on DNA sequences. He has led paleontological expeditions to Baja California, the Andes Mountains of Chile, Patagonia Argentina, the Yemen Arab Republic, and the Gobi Desert of Mongolia in search of fossil dinosaurs and mammals. The Mongolian expeditions mark the first return of a western scientific team to the country in over sixty years and have received world-wide scientific and public attention for their spectacular findings.

Novacek is the author of over more than 150 titles, including articles in the international scientific journals Science and Nature. Since 1982 he has published a series of monographs and papers on the broader evolution of mammals, culminating in a major review of molecular and morphological evidence, featured as a cover article in Nature (March 1992). He is a contributor to Natural History, Scientific American, Smithsonian, and Time magazines. His research has been supported by many agencies, including the National Science Foundation, National Geographic Society, Sloan Foundation, Eppley Foundation, and the International Research and Exchange Board (IREX). [from Prabook