 | Derek E.G. Briggs |
Derek E.G. Briggs, recently named the Frederick William Beinecke Professor of Geology and Geophysics, is recognized internationally for his research on the preservation and evolutionary significance of exceptionally preserved fossils -- those that provide information on soft tissues of animals as well as their skeletons.
Briggs uses a range of approaches, from experimental work on the factors controlling decay, to studies of early mineralization and molecular preservation, to fieldwork on a range of extraordinary fossil occurrences. A major focus of his work continues to be the Cambrian explosion -- the first appearance of all the major animal groups over 500 million years ago -- but Briggs and his team research a range of organisms from different geological periods. For example, tiny three-dimensional invertebrates recently reported from a volcanic ash of Silurian age (425-million-years-old) in Herefordshire, England, which he and colleagues are studying, include a sea spider, the free-swimming larval stages of a barnacle, a worm-like mollusk, a bristle worm and a starfish. A current project on 1- to 15-million-year-old leaves and insects involves investigating the alteration of biomolecules as they are incorporated into the fossil record en route to forming fossil fuels.
The Yale geologist has published several books, including "The Fossils of the Burgess Shale" and two edited volumes: "Palaeobiology -- a synthesis" (1990) and "Palaeobiology 2" (2001), which have become benchmarks in paleontology.
A graduate of Trinity College, Dublin, Briggs obtained his Ph.D. in 1976 from the University of Cambridge, where he worked on the fossils of the Cambrian Burgess Shale of British Columbia. The Burgess Shale project was subsequently celebrated as a major contribution to evolutionary paleontology by Stephen J. Gould in his best-selling 1989 book "Wonderful Life." After a period at the University of London, Briggs spent 17 years at the University of Bristol, where he was head of the Department of Earth Sciences from 1997 to 2001. Following a year as a visiting professor at the University of Chicago, Briggs joined the Yale faculty in 2003 as a geology professor and curator in charge of invertebrate paleontology at the Yale Peabody Museum of Natural History. He became director of the Yale Institute of Biospheric Studies in 2004.
A fellow of the Royal Society (the United Kingdom's equivalent of the National Academy of Science) and an honorary member of the Royal Irish Academy, Briggs has received several prestigious honors for his research work. These include the Premio Capo d'Orlando, an Italian prize for paleontology; the Lyell Medal of the Geological Society of London; and the Boyle Medal of the Royal Dublin Society/Irish Times. He was president of the Palaeontological Association (U.K.) 2002-2004 and is currently president-elect of the Paleontological Society (U.S.).
T H I S
Derek Briggs named the Beinecke
Professor of Geology, Geophysics
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