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Dr. Louis L. Jacobs is Emeritus Professor in the Roy M. Huffington Department of Earth Sciences and President of the ISEM at SMU. He received his B.S. degree from the University of Southwestern Louisiana (now the University of Louisiana at Lafayette) and his M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in Vertebrate Paleontology and Evolution from the University of Arizona. After completing his training, he worked as a research paleontologist at the Museum of Northern Arizona, a geologist for the U.S. Geological Survey, a lecturer and a research associate at the University of Arizona, Head of the Division of Paleontology at the National Museums of Kenya. He joined the faculty at SMU in 1983. During his time at SMU, Louis has held leadership positions at the Dallas Museum of Natural History as well as the Shuler Museum of Paleontology at SMU, where he ultimately served as Director for 13 years. Louis has won numerous awards and honors for his scholarship, his service, and the books he has written, including the University Scholar/Teacher of the Year Award from SMU, the Joseph T. Gregory Award for Service to the Society of Vertebrate Paleontology, The Texas Earth Science Teachers Association Lifetime Membership and Friends of TESTA Award, and many others. In addition, he is a past Fellow of the Explorers Club, Past President of the Society of Vertebrate Paleontology, and ten fossil species have been named after him. In this interview, he shares more about his life and science.
People Behind the Science Podcast Show Notes
Life Outside of Science (3:15)
When he’s not working, Louis loves to look at rocks, tend to orchids, bind books, and spend quality time with his grandchildren. They are insatiably curious and interested in everything, including rocks, fossils, and space.
The Scientific Side (4:17)
As a vertebrate paleontologist, Louis studies the fossils of animals with backbones. His goal is to understand their evolution and how it fits together with the earth and the environment to present a holistic picture of our world.
A Dose of Motivation (5:28)
“The life lesson of paleontology is that almost nothing is so broken that it can’t be fixed.”
What Got You Hooked on Science? (10:01)
During his childhood, Louis loved being outside, and he was fascinated by nature and science. His parents were really education-focused, and they traveled to and lived in many different places as a result of his father’s military career. Louis didn’t encounter his first vertebrate fossil until he was an undergraduate student, but he quickly became interested. When it was time to plan his next steps, Louis debated whether to pursue graduate studies in paleontology or deep marine invertebrates. Ultimately, he chose vertebrate paleontology. In graduate school, Louis participated in a variety of field projects spread across Arizona, Missouri, Wyoming, and Mexico. For his own PhD thesis, he had to choose between a project in the San Juan Basin of New Mexico and a project in Pakistan. Both involved looking at the magnetic properties of rocks and fossils to determine the age of rocks. Louis chose to go to Pakistan, and he spent many hours sieving through sediments in search of individual mouse teeth. Mice are incredibly diverse and evolve very quickly, which means their fossils can be used to divide up the geological timescale with more precision. This project led to an opportunity to work as Head of Paleontology at the National Museum of Kenya. As his two-year Kenyan work permit neared expiration, Louis started looking for jobs in the U.S. He found two open positions in vertebrate paleontology and ended up getting offers for both. After some deliberation, Louis chose SMU, and he has remained at the university ever since.
The Low Points: Failures and Challenges (25:40)
Failures and challenges happen all the time in science, but it’s best not to dwell on them. Stay calm, don’t get frustrated, and just move forward one step at a time. On one expedition in Pakistan, Louis was out late with a guide and two camels collecting dirt samples. It took longer than expected to collect and load the samples, and he had to lead a belligerent camel along an unstable path in the dark back to camp. Everything turned out okay, but he felt bad about making the team worry.
In the laboratory, there are different kinds of challenges. One of his former students worked on an interesting project examining how nursing impacts the teeth of mice. In mice, teeth grow over time, so if their diets change, the composition of their teeth will change as well. This project involved a complicated set of experiments and measurements, and there were so many unforeseen factors that came up. The project was ultimately successful, and they developed a mathematical model that allowed them to correct for the ages of individual teeth in the fossil record when doing geochemistry studies.
A Shining Success! (29:18)
Right now, Louis is working on an exciting collaboration with academic dentists, experimental geneticists, and developmental biologists who are studying the periodontal ligament, a flexible tissue that holds teeth in their sockets. The ligament has evolved multiple times in both reptiles and mammals. What they have learned about the ligament’s genetics and development can be applied to fossils to better understand their train of evolution through time, based on which specimens have or don’t have evidence of this ligament.
Another success has arisen from their work in Angola. The country is situated on the southwest coast of Africa where South America and Africa used to be fused together. They found a large amount of fossils in Angola and put together an exhibit for the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History. Their exhibit had over 15 million visits, and from it, they created a traveling exhibit that will tour the U.S. for three years. In addition, they developed a plan for returning the fossils to Angola once the exhibit concludes and ensuring a local team in Angola can continue proper stewardship for the fossils thereafter. One of the Angolan students who participated in the project was subsequently named the Director of the Angolan National Museum of Natural History, and this was a really meaningful success for Louis as well.
Book Recommendations (33:30)
The Village of Bom Jesus by Lloyd Hill; Cry, the Beloved Country by Alan Paton; Too Late the Phalarope by Alan Paton; Natural history books by Archie Carr
Most Treasured Travel (34:59)
Louis had the opportunity to work with one of his talented students on a five-year project in the Gobi Desert in Mongolia. The desert there was hot, dusty, sandy, and full of fossils, and spending the field seasons in Mongolia during this project was a remarkable experience. The region has a rich history in the field of paleontology, including the discovery of the first Protoceratops and Velociraptor fossils. While in Mongolia, they met many amazing people, and it was wonderful to contribute to bringing together more pieces of the big puzzle of ancient life there.
Quirky Traditions and Funny Memories (38:22)
When the team gathers at camp after a long and exhausting day of field work, there is so much camaraderie, and there are a lot of funny moments. Louis has had some amazing and harrowing experiences with colleagues in the field, including a visit from a curious baby elephant seal while he was sleeping in a tent at a field site in Antarctica, seeking shelter in an ice cave after their entire Antarctic camp was blown away, and many others. You can always laugh about these moments together after the trouble is resolved.
Advice For Us All (42:08)
Scientists, and particularly paleontologists, have a responsibility to engage and relate with the public. You never know where these conversations and connections may lead.
Guest Bio
Louis is a paleontologist who studies fossil bones to understand the history of life and Earth. His team has been exploring the coastal cliffs of Angola in southwest Africa since 2005. Sea Monsters Unearthed: Life in Angola’s Ancient Seas, an exhibit telling the story of their Angolan discoveries, opened on November 9, 2018, in the Smithsonian Institution’s U.S. National Museum of Natural History in Washington, D.C. This exhibit is unique in its story, in the role of SMU students who pieced much of it together in the laboratories of Heroy Hall, and in the way it was produced cooperatively with the Smithsonian. The exhibition in DC has had its stay extended four times and has been viewed by millions of national and international visitors to our nation’s capital. It is now beginning a national tour for three years. It will continue to inspire through its science, the art in which the past is brought to life, and the excitement of learning. Louis has conducted extensive field work in Malawi, Cameroon, Mozambique, Ethiopia, and now in Angola. Beyond Africa, he has conducted fieldwork in Costa Rica, Mexico, Pakistan, Yemen, Mongolia, Antarctica, and the US. He is currently President of ISEM at SMU, a non-profit organization that supports students and research. He has published more that 150 peer-reviewed scientific papers, seven edited volumes, and three popular books. He is the author of Quest for the African Dinosaurs, which received the Edwin H. Colbert Award, Lone Star Dinosaurs, which was recognized by joint resolution of the Texas Legislature and formed the basis of a traveling exhibit shown in the Rotunda of the State Capitol, and Cretaceous Airport, the story of fossils at the Dallas Fort Worth International Airport.
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