The Team at the Field Museum

Gaby Mata

Field High School Intern

Hola! Gaby was born in Los Angeles, California and moved to Chicago around 2005-2006. She is currently attending Eric Solorio Academy High School in the Gage Park area and is participating in the Digital Learning Program at the Field Museum! She loves running during her free time and wants to pursue an optometry career when she is older!

Nivedita (Nidhi) Tirthamattur

Field High School Intern

Currently attending Neuqua Valley High School, Nidhi is a digital learning intern at the Field Museum and is working with Matt von Konrat and the botany team to create this platform. She enjoys playing her musical instruments and traveling. She hopes to pursue a career in medicine in the future.

Heaven Wade

Research Assistant at the Field Museum

Heaven is a recent graduate of Denison University with a B.S. in Biochemistry. She is a Research Assistant for the Botany Department at the Field Museum. When she isn't at work, she loves to watch a good Netflix series!

Nkosi Evans

Collections Assistant at The Field Museum

Nkosi has just graduated from Northeastern Illinois University and is currently working with Dr. Matt Von Konrat in the botany collections. As of now, they are working on a project using historical specimens to observe environmental trends. Outside of botany collections, Nkosi enjoys biking and photography!

Beth McDonald

Beth earned her Master's Degree in Computer Science from Northeastern Illinois University in 2020. She has been working as a machine learning engineer for the Field Museum since January! Before graduate school, she received two degrees in music. She still loves playing and performing music regularly!

Matt Von Konrat

Head of Botanical Collections, McCarter Collections Manager (Bryophytes & Pteridophytes)

Kia ora! Greetings! Matt is originally from Aotearoa-New Zealand and relocated to Chicago in 2001. Matt has broad interests including collection management and digitization, harnessing the enthusiasm for community science and deepening the connection and engagement between the general public, including youth, and scientific collections. Matt’s research interest’s focus on bryophytes (mosses, liverworts and hornworts), particularly from the southern hemisphere, using an integrative taxonomic approach ranging from molecules to morphology.

Aimee Davis

Director of Learning at the Field Museum

Ayesha Qazi

Associate, Science & Education at Field Museum

Tom Campbell

Tom is an instructor of biology at Northeastern Illinois University. He enjoys teaching and learning all things science and history!

Karl Bitikofer

Karl studied Engineering Science and Mechanics at Virginia Tech and took a lot of math and creative writing classes along the way. He spends his free time building robots, cooking, and reading an endless string of Wikepedia articles!

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Thanks for the support

Digital Learning Program at the Field Museum

Lauren Wagner - Field Museum Learning Operations Coordinator

The Field Museum IT Team

Thank you for the generous support by the National Science Foundation (Award No.’s 1145898, 1115002 1458300, 1541506, 2001509 and 0531730) is gratefully acknowledged. Also for the NSF program, Research Experience for Post-Baccalaureate Students (REPS) in the Biological Sciences.
We also recognize the support of the Museum Collection Spending Fund, administered by The Field Museum, curatorial support provided by Lucia Kawasaki and Anna Balla (The Field Museum), advocacy from the Field Museum Women in Science Board as well as aid from the Negaunee Foundation.
We gratefully acknowledge the support and help from Zooniverse and Zooniverse volunteers.