Scott Hocknull | 2015 Speaker
From dig to digital – breaking the ‘rules’ of museums
Dr. Scott Hocknull is senior curator of geosciences, a vertebrate palaeontologist and passionate science communicator. He developed his love for natural history at a very young age growing up in the Northern Territory, Australia.
Scott started at the Queensland Museum in 1990 as a 12 year old volunteer, working in the palaeontology and geology department. In secondary school Scott published his first scientific paper, at the time Australia’s youngest published scientific authors. Realising that most of the museum’s collections were hidden from public view, he has been a strong advocate for bringing the behind-the-scenes of museum science to the public. In 2000 he landed his dream job as a palaeontologist for QM, making him the youngest museum curator in Australia at 22. Among many honours, Scott was named Young Australian of the Year in 2002.
Scott has developed and promoted Australian vertebrate palaeontology research and community engagement, leading in a wide range of new areas of exploration and discovery. Scott’s research spans the last 200 million years of Earth history from dinosaurs and megafauna, to trace fossils and the evolution of modern species. His work centres on the discovery and interpretation of ancient environments, understanding how these evolve in response to major environmental changes.
Scott is passionate about applying new technologies to museum collections so that we can better interpret and demonstrate our natural heritage. He is currently working on new ways to better engage the public in seeing, interpreting and understanding our vast fossil heritage.