Paul E. Olsen (born August 4, 1953) is an American paleontologist and author and co-author of a large number of technical papers.

Biography

Growing up as a teenager in Livingston, New Jersey, he was instrumental in

Riker Hill Fossil Site Riker Hill Fossil Site (also referred to as Walter Kidde Dinosaur Park) is a paleontological site in Roseland in Essex County, New Jersey, United States, located at the south western side of the borough at the border between Roseland and Livings ...

being named a National Natural Landmark as a teenager by sending President Richard Nixon a dinosaur footprint cast from the site. He received a M. Phil. and a Ph.D. in Biology at Yale University in 1984. His thesis was on the Newark Supergroup. His interests and research examine patterns of ecosystem evolution and extinction as a response to climate change over geological time, and Triassic and Jurassic Continental Ecosystems. His research methods include paleoclimatology,

structural geology Structural geology is the study of the three-dimensional distribution of rock units with respect to their deformational histories. The primary goal of structural geology is to use measurements of present-day rock geometries to uncover informatio ...

, paleontology, palynology, geochemistry, and geophysics. Professor Olsen is currently Arthur D. Storke Memorial Professor of Earth and Environmental Sciences, Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences, Lamont–Doherty Earth Observatory at Columbia University; Research Associate at the Carnegie Museum of Natural History, Pittsburgh, the

American Museum of Natural History The American Museum of Natural History (abbreviated as AMNH) is a natural history museum on the Upper West Side of Manhattan in New York City. In Theodore Roosevelt Park, across the street from Central Park, the museum complex comprises 26 inter ...

and the

Virginia Natural History Museum The Virginia Museum of Natural History is the state's natural history museum located in Martinsville, Virginia founded in 1984. The museum has several different award-winning publications, is affiliated with the Smithsonian Institution, and has ...

, from which he received the Thomas Jefferson Medal for Outstanding Contributions to Natural Science, in 2015. He was elected to the

National Academy of Sciences The National Academy of Sciences (NAS) is a United States nonprofit, non-governmental organization. NAS is part of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, along with the National Academy of Engineering (NAE) and the Nati ...

in 2008.

Recent publications

* Olsen, P.E., Laskar, J., Kent, D.V., Kinney, S.T., Reynolds, D.J., Sha, J., Whiteside, J.H., 2019, Mapping Solar System chaos with the Geological Orrery. PNAS, May 28, 2019 116 (22) 10664-10673. *

Peter LeTourneau Peter may refer to: People * List of people named Peter, a list of people and fictional characters with the given name * Peter (given name) ** Saint Peter (died 60s), apostle of Jesus, leader of the early Christian Church * Peter (surname), a sur ...

and Paul Olsen (ed.), (2003) ''The Great Rift Valleys of Pangea in Eastern North America, vol. 1-2'', published by Columbia University Press. Volume 1: Tectonics, Structure, and Volcanism (), Volume 2: Sedimentology, Stratigraphy, and Paleontology ()

In production

* Olsen, Paul E., ''Dinosaur and Other Fossil Tracks of Eastern North America'': Columbia University Press

References

External links

Columbia homepage

{{DEFAULTSORT:Olsen, Paul E. American paleontologists American science teachers American science writers Yale University alumni Columbia University faculty 1953 births Living people People associated with the American Museum of Natural History People from Livingston, New Jersey American people of Danish descent American people of Ukrainian descent Lamont–Doherty Earth Observatory people