Research & Collections

Through collections-based research, teaching, and outreach, our Museum shares its knowledge and collections with local, national, and international audiences of all ages and backgrounds.

Research: Our curatorial staff and their students, faculty and students throughout the University of �ֻ�ֱ��, state and federal agencies, and national and international researchers all use and improve the museum's collections through ongoing research projects ranging from short-term high school Science Symposium investigations to large-scale, multi-national, multi-institutional collaborations.

Teaching and Outreach: Our faculty curators and collections not only provide resources for academic training at undergraduate, graduate, and postdoctoral levels, but we are also heavily involved in community outreach, including school visits, public presentations, and workshops. We also mentor researchers at many levels, from high school to undergraduate and graduate students to postdoctoral researchers.

Collections: The museum's collections include more than 2.5 million artifacts and specimens representing millions of years of biological diversity and thousands of years of cultural traditions in the North. Many of these are rare and unique, but there are also long series of specimens representing all aspects of regional natural history. Such series, often accumulated over decades, are a crucial resource for research. The collections are organized into 10 research disciplines.