Skip to main content

Canopy Meg Moving to Greener Pastures

You may know I’ve been paying some attention to the restructuring at the North Carolina Nature Research Center and how that has affected Dr.

This article was published in Scientific American’s former blog network and reflects the views of the author, not necessarily those of Scientific American


You may know I've been paying some attention to the restructuring at the North Carolina Nature Research Center and how that has affected Dr. Meg Lowman, also known as Canopy Meg.

So...Matt Shipman shared this story with me on my Facebook wall today:

Top state museum scientist leaving Nature Research Center


On supporting science journalism

If you're enjoying this article, consider supporting our award-winning journalism by subscribing. By purchasing a subscription you are helping to ensure the future of impactful stories about the discoveries and ideas shaping our world today.


Go read the whole thing, but here are a few key quotes. Looks like other folks finally picked up on Dr. Lowman's poor treatment and the broader problems at the NRC:

"The top scientist at the Nature Research Center is leaving her post three years after taking the helm of the science museum's new $56-million wing. The move comes four months after the museum's new director effectively demoted her....

"On July 1, Lowman was effectively demoted from her original position as director of the center, where she oversaw nine scientists and other staffers who conducted research in labs designed to showcase science to the public. Her altered role, created by Koster, contained no management duties....

"Bilbro said she also opposed the move, although she understood Koster's motivation to unify the great museum.

""I saw the Nature Research Center as a part of the museum," Bilbro said. "I just disagreed with the way he restructured and reorganized."

"Lowman said she didn't know about the California job until the academy began recruiting her for the position. But she pointed out that her transition to new job responsibilities at the North Carolina museum made the timing of her departure ideal."

 

I am Dr. Kate Clancy, Assistant Professor of Anthropology at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign. On top of being an academic, I am a mother, a wife, an athlete, a labor activist, a sister, and a daughter. My beautiful blog banner was made by Jacqueline Dillard. Context and variation together help us understand humans (and any other species) as complicated. But they also help to show us that biology is not immutable, that it does not define us from the moment of our birth. Rather, our environment pushes and pulls our genes into different reaction norms that help us predict behavior and physiology. But, as humans make our environments, we have the ability to change the very things that change us. We often have more control over our biology than we may think.

More by Kate Clancy