The Dallas Paleontological Society (DPS) scholarship committee recently awarded The Frank Crane Memorial Scholarship to Roy M. Huffington Department of Earth Sciences graduate student Myria Perez.
“I have had the incredible opportunity to be involved in a research project that will be seen by millions of people from around the globe,” says Myria Perez. “During my four years at Southern Methodist University, I have unjacketed, cleaned, and used 3D technology to reveal 72 million year old marine reptile fossils from the country of Angola in the paleontology laboratories. The research from SMU will be shared through an exhibit at the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History in Washington, D.C.”
“As a core member on the exhibit planning team, I have been able to work with the highly skilled and dedicated members from the Smithsonian NMNH, Karen Carr Studio, and paleontologists at SMU. This has truly been a once-in-a-lifetime experience,” Perez continues.
DPS has invested over $26,000 in the future of aspiring paleontologists through the Scholarship. The award is presented to graduate students nominated by their respective professors. Students return to the DPS and make a presentation on their work.
“Myria is a participant in research about our Earth and the life in its oceans going back over 70 million years. That work will be presented to the world in a Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History exhibit that she is helping to produce. The subject is gigantic marine reptiles from a young South Atlantic, an ocean formed from the split of Africa and South America. Very similar marine reptile fossils are found in the Dallas area and not far from SMU,” said Louis Jacobs, Professor of Paleontology, President of the Institute for the Study of Earth and Man, and Perez’s faculty mentor.
“DPS is the citizen science wing of this effort,” continues Jacobs. “Its members pitch in, in every way they can, and their support for Myria shows their dedication to the future of the science in Dallas. Myria proves that our SMU World Changers bring the world to our backyard while taking SMU to the world.”
For more information on the Dallas Paleontological Society click here.