The University of Wyoming Geological Museum, located in the UW Geology building, showcases fossils from all time periods and intends to be a valuable resource for students.
Dr. Laura Vietti, assistant research scientist, runs the museum with the help of students.
“I rely entirely on students. And so I have about five to 10 undergraduate and graduate students who work with me to run the front desk. They work with me in the back of the room to curate specimens. We work on displays together,” said Vietti.
Only a small portion of the museum’s collection is on display at any given time, as the university’s complete collection is far too extensive for the space.
“I also have the entire fossil collections so the museum that you see in the background only represents about 1% of all the fossils that we have here at the University of Wyoming” said
Vietti.
The museum rotates the specimens on display in certain locations.
“There’s a display in our museum. It’s called our nips nook, which has a temporary display case, or display area, and that one is meant to have museum exhibits that rotate about one to two years,” said Vietti.
In the near future the museum plans to release a new exhibit on the top floor of the museum about Wyoming’s oceans.
The museum plans to release a new exhibit on the top floor in the near future.
“We do have some very big plans. We are currently working on an exhibit featuring Wyoming’s oceans,” said Vietti.
Vietti and her team strive for the museum to be a valuable asset for students and to showcase the UW Geology Department.
“The goal of the museum, it is to be the public facing outreach for the geology department and, in part, the University of Wyoming,” Vietti said.
“It’s here for students to see, more students to come in use it. You can study in here if you just need to break out of the snow for a couple hours. But really, it’s something that is here for the students and, so it’s their museum, not ours.”
