From the National Science Foundation (NSF)

Perhaps one of the toughest parts of being a scientific researcher is figuring out how to communicate your work and passion for science to a broad global audience. This is an even bigger problem for researchers who focus on topics that the general public tends to find, well, a little gross. Such has been the challenge for Museum entomologist and Associate Curator of Invertebrate Zoology Dr. Nicole Gunter, whose primary research focus is dung beetles. But public opinion may soon shift in her favor.

 

Dr. Gunter penned a creative project proposal that uses her favorite animal as a model to explore broad trends in evolutionary biology, which could have a widespread impact on how researchers approach public science education. And the National Science Foundation (NSF) has taken notice. Yesterday, the NSF announced the award to the Cleveland Museum of Natural History with an intended total amount of $974,412 to fund Dr. Gunter’s proposed project through the federal agency’s prestigious Faculty Early Career Development Program (CAREER). 

 

This highly competitive award supports early-career faculty with promising futures as academic role models to lead the advancement of their organization’s mission. The grant program is open to applicants from all fields of STEM, aside from medicine, and funds activities that build a foundation of leadership in integrating education and research. As required by the grant, Dr. Gunter’s multi-year project will include two major components, bringing research and collections to the forefront of Museum programming.

 

“As scientists, we often focus on sharing our research in publications or at conferences,” says Dr. Gunter, “but I believe we can have a bigger impact communicating our results to a broader public audience. I want to ignite a sense of wonder that there is still so much to learn about our planet and inspire the next generation of scientists.” 

 

The integration of research and an education program will allow her to accomplish both while focusing on the core goal to improve academic and public understanding of the factors that contribute to species distribution. 

 

To achieve this, Dr. Gunter will first travel to Australia to conduct systematic and phylogeographic research on two unique groups of dung beetles that have evolved on separate timelines and which represent different environmental conditions on the continent. The first group, a relictual Gondwanan clade, has had a long environmental association with the continent, likely dating back to the Cretaceous Period. The other group colonized Australia more recently, arriving from Indomalaya about 15 million years ago. 

 

Both native dung beetle groups have adapted to environmental changes on the isolated continent, but the latter group established itself after the major change that transformed the Australian habitat from widespread temperate rainforest to the drier landscapes we know today. These groups’ unique and disjunct evolutionary histories will help determine whether environmental tolerance is heritable. This research will also help Dr. Gunter improve the current capabilities of niche modeling. 

 

Niche modeling accounts for the influences of biological factors, like physical traits and adaptations, and abiotic variables, like geography, temperature, rainfall, and other environmental factors, on a species’ suitability for a specific environment. Scientists can use this data to determine species’ distributions and to better understand the environmental conditions that contribute to their geographic range.

 

“Niche modeling is useful in applied sciences for understanding conservation priorities, the location of medically important species, the spread of invasive species, the impact of natural disasters, and more,” says Dr. Gunter. “Essentially, I’m trying to better understand how we can learn from the past to predict the future.”

 

The second component of Dr. Gunter’s project will be equally impactful. Using a seemingly ordinary Museum staple—the planetarium—Dr. Gunter will bring scientific research to life in a dynamic way. And she’ll not only display her own findings, but she’ll be able to pull examples from the 1.3 billion specimen records that scientists have amassed in the years following the NSF’s call in 2013 for the expansion and enhancement of the nation’s digitization efforts. With Dr. Gunter’s creative solution, Museum visitors will have the opportunity to see data on biodiversity and natural processes—like the migration of butterflies—in an immersive setting for the very first time.

 

“I always felt like there was more that I could do to communicate the science I am so passionate about,” says Dr. Gunter. “I think this is a unique way to use Museum resources while leveraging the countless specimen records that have been collected worldwide.” 

 

“The fact that she’s developing what I think is a new model for how you can display data—specifically associated with species distribution and environmental change—is a lot more compelling than a traditional two-dimensional experience,” says Dr. Gavin Svenson, the Museum’s Director of Research & Collections and Curator of Invertebrate Zoology.

 

The ultimate goal of this project is to improve public scientific literacy relating to species’ evolution, ecology, and planetary change. Achieving this goal will require Museum-wide collaboration, but it will be well worth the effort.

 

“I’m hoping that this project shows the transformational power of a true research, collections, and education integration, and what that could mean for the future of the Museum and science education as a whole,” says Dr. Denise Su, the Museum’s Director of Partnerships & Programs and Curator of Paleobotany & Paleoecology. 

 

One thing is certain—Dr. Gunter is up to the challenge. “I’m thrilled to have been awarded this grant,” she says. “It’s an exciting opportunity to bring the Museum’s research and collections to the public in a new way. This will open up endless opportunities for sharing biodiversity research, which is so important.”

 

“[This project] embodies everything we’ve been talking about in terms of linking research and education,” says Dr. Svenson. “It’s a demonstration of one of our curators performing at a pinnacle level.”

 

“This award enables the Museum to continue our important legacy of furthering public discourse on the processes shaping our world and the critical role of conservation and biodiversity,” says Museum President & CEO Sonia Winner. “I congratulate Dr. Gunter on this impressive accomplishment and look forward to her resulting work, which is simply the first step in what will turn out to be a long and successful career as an entomologist.”