I am the Curator of Palaeobotany at the Royal Tyrrell Museum of Palaeontology, Drumheller, Alberta, Canada. I am originally from St. Andrews Manitoba. I completed a BSc in Earth Sciences at the University of Winnipeg in 2008, a BSc with High Honours in Palaeobiology at the University of Saskatchewan in 2013, and a PhD in Palaeobotany and Geology at the University of Saskatchewan in 2019. My doctoral research focused on reconstructing late Paleocene and early Eocene palaeoclimate and palaeoenvironments from Ellesmere Island, Nunavut, Canada. In addition, my doctoral research involved describing the late Paleocene and early Eocene fossil flora from Ellesmere and Axel Heiberg islands, Nunavut. In 2020 I was awarded the Governor General's Gold Medal for my work on the fossil floras of the Canadian High Arctic. Previously, I was  a Postdoctoral Fellow at the University of Saskatchewan where I worked on middle Eocene Arctic plants, and the Climates of the Canadian North Postdoctoral Fellow at the University of Alberta where I worked on Paleogene fossil plants from the Yukon.

 

My research is broadly focused on reconstructing ancient climates and ecosystems using plant fossils in order to understand the larger scale interactions between forest ecosystems and the biotic and abiotic factors that shape them. I am also interested in investigating the deep time evolutionary and palaeobiogeographic pathways that have led to the development of our modern forest ecosystems.

 

I am currently working on late Paleocene fossil plants from the Yukon; the middle Eocene megaflora from Axel Heiberg Island, Nunavut, Canada; the late Cretaceous, early Eocene, and Miocene fossil floras from British Columbia; Cretaceous and Paleocene fossil floras from Alberta; and, investigating new methods, to reconstruct these ancient environments, that focus on chemical fossils and stomatal and cuticle analysis.

 

I have received funding to conduct, and to present my research internationally, from the National Science and Engineering Research Council (NSERC) of Canada, the International Organisation of Palaeobotany, the Geological Society of America, the Botanical Society of America, the Geological Survey of Canada, the Bundesanstalt für Geowissenschaften und Rohstoffe (Federal Institute for Geosciences and Natural Resources) in Hannover, the Polar Continental Shelf Program, the Northern Scientific Training Program, the University of Saskatchewan, Brandon University, and the University of Alberta.