Professor of Paleontology

A Professor of Paleontology occupies one of the narrower but more distinctive niches in academic science — responsible simultaneously for teaching Earth's deep biological history, producing original research on fossil organisms, and training the next generation of paleontologists. The job is three jobs compressed into one appointment: scientist, educator, and graduate supervisor.

On the research side, the work is driven by the fossil record. That means planning and executing summer field expeditions to localities in places like the Morrison Formation, the Karoo Basin, or Cambrian sites in Yunnan — organizing permits, vehicle logistics, student safety plans, and excavation equipment. Back at the lab, it means weeks processing matrix, running specimens through the CT scanner, building morphological datasets, and writing up findings for peer review. The publication calendar is never far from mind: tenure committees, grant review panels, and department chairs all watch the record closely.

In the classroom, professors teach introductory paleontology, vertebrate or invertebrate paleontology, biostratigraphy, phylogenetics, and Earth history courses depending on the department's curriculum and their own specialization. Graduate seminars involve close reading of primary literature and methodological discussions that blur the line between teaching and research advising.

Graduate student mentorship is the third major demand. A professor with an active lab typically supervises two to five graduate students at any given time — reviewing draft chapters, troubleshooting fieldwork logistics, co-authoring manuscripts, and advocating for students in the job market. When a PhD student is stuck on a stratigraphic correlation or a phylogenetic analysis that won't resolve, the professor is the first resource.

Collection curation is a fourth obligation that often goes unacknowledged in job postings but consumes real time. Departments and affiliated natural history museums rely on faculty to maintain specimen catalogs, supervise volunteer preparators, respond to loan requests from other institutions, and advocate for collection resources in budget cycles.

The pace is not uniform. Semesters are dense with teaching and advising; summers compress fieldwork, writing, and grant preparation into a short window. Sabbaticals — typically one semester every seven years — are when many professors produce their most ambitious research.

Education:

• PhD in geology, earth sciences, biology, or a directly related field with a paleontological dissertation (required for tenure-track positions)
• One to two postdoctoral fellowships totaling two to four years (effectively required to be competitive at research universities)
• MS in a relevant field as part of the doctoral trajectory; some programs admit directly from a bachelor's degree

Research profile expectations:

• First-author publications in peer-reviewed journals — JVP, Palaeontology, PLOS ONE, Nature, Science for high-impact finds
• Demonstrated or emerging grant funding history; NSF EAR (Earth Sciences) and DEB (Division of Environmental Biology) are the primary federal sources
• An identifiable research specialty — vertebrate paleontology, paleoecology, invertebrate morphology, paleobotany, ichnology — that distinguishes the candidate
• Field experience in relevant geological settings with evidence of independent expedition leadership

Technical skills:

• Morphological data collection: geometric morphometrics, linear measurement protocols, character matrix construction
• Phylogenetic analysis software: TNT, PAUP*, BEAST, MrBayes
• CT data processing: Dragonfly, Amira, or equivalent segmentation software
• 3D surface scanning: NextEngine, Artec, structured-light scanning
• GIS for stratigraphic mapping and locality documentation
• Collection database management: Specify, EMu, or similar museum catalog systems

Teaching and mentorship experience:

• Graduate or undergraduate teaching experience, including sole-instructor courses if possible
• Evidence of graduate student co-authorship and thesis committee service
• Field course leadership or workshop instruction at professional meetings

Professional standing:

• Active membership in SVP (Society of Vertebrate Paleontology), GSA, Paleontological Society, or equivalent depending on specialization
• Peer review service for relevant journals and NSF panels

Paleontology faculty positions are among the rarest in the physical sciences. Unlike geology or biology, where departments may hire multiple faculty in a given year, a single institution might go a decade between paleontology searches. The Bureau of Labor Statistics projects modest growth for postsecondary teachers overall, but paleontology-specific positions are determined more by retirements and departmental strategic decisions than by broad market trends.

The practical pipeline runs like this: PhD completion leads to one or two postdoctoral appointments, then to a visiting assistant professor or lecturer position while applying for tenure-track roles, then — for a fraction of candidates — to a tenure-track hire. The median time from PhD to first tenure-track job has extended in recent years; five to eight years post-PhD is now common rather than exceptional.

Alternative and parallel career paths have become more normalized. Natural history museum curators — at the AMNH, Smithsonian, LACM, FMNH, and comparable institutions — hold research and collection positions that overlap substantially with faculty work, often without undergraduate teaching requirements. These curatorial roles are also highly competitive but draw from the same candidate pool. Some paleontologists find positions at state geological surveys, oil company biostratigraphy groups (where microfossil identification drives stratigraphic correlation), or science communication and museum education roles.

Digitization initiatives funded by NSF's iDigBio program and similar efforts have created a wave of collection manager and digitization project positions that provide employment for paleontology PhDs outside the faculty track, though most are soft-money or term-limited.

The field's scientific profile has risen in recent years, partly driven by high-profile fossil discoveries and partly by the integration of paleontological data into climate and biodiversity research. That visibility has not translated into more faculty lines — budget pressures at universities continue to push departments toward hiring in higher-enrollment disciplines. But it has increased public interest and the philanthropic support available to active research programs.

For candidates who enter the tenure track, job security post-tenure is strong. The salary ceiling is modest compared to industry science careers, but the autonomy to pursue original research questions, lead fieldwork, and shape a graduate program represents a career structure that attracts committed scientists regardless of the market conditions.

Dear Search Committee,

I am applying for the Assistant Professor of Paleontology position at [University]. I will complete my second postdoctoral appointment at [Institution] in May, where I have been working with [Advisor] on functional morphology and locomotor evolution in early tetrapods using micro-CT datasets from Devonian and Carboniferous material.

My dissertation at [University] produced four peer-reviewed publications, including a first-author paper in the Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology on hindlimb proportions in stem amphibians. Since then I have added three additional publications and a co-authored methods paper on landmark protocol standardization for limb bones. I have an NSF Postdoctoral Research Fellowship that runs through the end of this fiscal year and a pending proposal to EAR for field and laboratory work in the Catskill Formation that I submitted as lead PI in January.

I have led or co-led field expeditions in New York, Pennsylvania, and the Northwest Territories over the past four summers, supervising undergraduate field assistants and one MS student who is completing her thesis on fin-to-limb transitions. Teaching experience includes sole-instructor responsibility for an undergraduate historical geology course and co-instruction of a graduate phylogenetic methods seminar.

Your department's combination of a research-active earth sciences faculty and an affiliated natural history collection aligns directly with how I work. I rely on comparative specimen access for morphometric datasets, and the opportunity to develop that collection as a departmental resource while building a graduate program in early vertebrate evolution is exactly the environment I am looking for.

I have attached my CV, research and teaching statements, and three publications. I welcome the opportunity to discuss how my program fits your department's direction.

[Your Name]