Nick is the curator of fossil marine mammals at the Smithsonian Institution's National Museum of Natural History, in Washington, D.C. He received his Ph.D. from the University of California, Berkeley, and completed his postdoctoral work at the University of British Columbia. As a paleontologist, his scientific research focuses on how different kinds of four-limbed animals have repeatedly invaded oceans from land ancestry over the past 250 million years – an evolutionary cross-section of vertebrate life that includes sea turtles, seabirds, and especially marine mammals, such as whales. He has done scientific fieldwork on every continent, and lead over a dozen scientific expeditions during the last decade, with a strong focus on paleontological exploration, anatomical discovery, international mentorship, and 3D digitization for museum collections. You can read more about the research in his laboratory here. He can also be tracked on Twitter @PyensonLab. (February 2017) Nick's Sitka Activities

• KCAW morning interview
• Natural History Seminar: "What does the deep history of whales tell us about the evolution of the oceans?"
• 3-D printing discussion with Sitka High School Future Problem Solvers Club and Blatchley Middle School Technology class
• Art and natural history guest presentations at Blatchley Middle School Art/Sculpture class and Mount Edgecumbe High School Art Club
• Radio interview on the Sitka Nature Show