Breakout

Title: Transforming the Role of Natural History Collections in Biodiversity Science

Organizer: Michigan State University, Alan Prather

Session Goals:
The goal of this session will be to open a dialogue between scientists and policy makers about what our mutual goals are and how they can be achieved. Recommendations about incorporation of new technologies and funding of natural history collections can be made.

Speakers:
Moderator:
Alan Prather Associate Professor and Director of the Herbarium, Michigan State University Steering Committee Chair, CollectionsWeb

Discussants:
Quentin D. Wheeler
University Vice President
Dean, College of Liberal Arts and Sciences
Director, International Institute for Species Exploration
Virginia M. Ullman Professor of Natural History and the Environment, School of Life Sciences;
Arizona State University
Lucinda A. McDade, Chair of the Botany Department & Professor of Botany, Claremont Graduate University
Judith B. Friend Director of Research, Rancho Santa Ana Botanic Garden
David P. Mindell, Dean of Science,
Harry W. and Diana V. Hind Chair
Curator of Ornithology,
California Academy of Sciences

Summary:
Natural history collections are a key part of the infrastructure for scientific research that documents biodiversity. They are crucial to many types of scientific studies, especially in species description, biological surveys, and for any study that requires voucher specimens. A long-standing challenge, however, is that researchers, resource managers, and other important stakeholders are generally unaware of the resources contained in our nation's collections. Historically, collections have organized along disciplinary lines resulting in fragmentation and limited interdisciplinary communication. With the availability of new technology and the pressing research and societal questions facing us today, the natural science collections community is recognizing the importance of working collaboratively and implementing new technologies to inform our understanding of biodiversity. These new technologies and media provide a myriad of opportunities to improve access to collections and to transform not only the way that scientists document biodiversity, but also the role of museums in land management, conservation of biodiversity, and public policy. Surveys of the status of both federally held and federally funded natural history collections are underway. These surveys are being conduced by the Interagency Working Group on Scientific Collections (as authorized by the Committee on Science of the National Science and Technology Council) and the National Science Foundation, respectively. These surveys will help elucidate the needs of natural history collections to meet the challenges of biodiversity science. The results of these surveys, in tandem with a number of broad and exciting scientific initiatives that are underway, will help natural history collections meet these challenges and transform the way that biodiversity science is done.