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Nicholas_Pyenson

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corolina.nelson.jim
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© © All Rights Reserved
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Nicholas Pyenson

Nicholas Pyenson is a paleontologist and the curator


of fossil marine mammals at the Smithsonian Nicholas Pyenson
Institution’s National Museum of Natural History in Born Nicholas D. Pyenson
Washington, DC. He is the author of numerous popular 1980
science works including the book Spying on Whales: Nationality American
The Past, Present, and Future of Earth's Most Alma mater University of California, Berkeley
Awesome Creatures.[1] (PhD)
Emory University (BS)
Awards Presidential Early Career Award
Education for Scientists and Engineers
World Economic Forum Young
Pyenson received a Bachelor's Degree from Emory
Scientist Award
University. In 2002, Pyenson moved to the University
of California, Berkeley, where he received a Ph.D. in Scientific career
Integrative Biology in 2008, advised by Anthony Fields Paleontology, Cetology
Barnosky and David R. Lindberg. During this time, he Institutions National Museum of Natural
was also working in the University of California History
Museum of Paleontology.[2] Pyenson's interest in
whales led him to his dissertation topic, "Understanding the paleoecology and evolution of cetaceans in
the Eastern North Pacific Ocean during the Neogene."[3] Following his PhD, Pyenson completed a
postdoctoral fellowship at the University of British Columbia.[4]

Research and career


Pyenson's research centers focuses on evolutionary patterns in marine animals through time, with a
particular focus on patterns of convergent evolution in whales, but has also studied sea-cows, sea turtles,
pinnipeds, sharks, and other marine animals. Pyenson has published over 70 scientific publications,
including cover articles in the journals Science and Nature, studying questions about the evolution of
body size in papers like "Why whales are big but not bigger: Physiological drivers and ecological limits
in the age of ocean giants" (2019) and "Early and fast rise of Mesozoic ocean giants" (2021).[5] In 2012,
Pyenson and colleagues reported the discovery of a novel sensory organ that facilitates the behavior in
some rorqual baleen whales known as "lunge feeding".[6] Other work has developed the understanding of
the odontocete melon, a structure involved in echolocation.[7]
In 2017, Pyenson was awarded a Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers by
President Barack Obama,[8] and has won numerous research awards from the Smithsonian, including the
Secretary’s Research Prize. Pyenson is a member of the Young Scientists community at the World
Economic Forum, a Kavli Fellow at the National Academy of Sciences, and a Fulbright Specialist at the
US State Department.[4][9]

Writing and media


Pyenson's writing on topics from whales to science and society have appeared in publications such as The
New York Times,[10] Scientific American,[11] Smithsonian (magazine),[12] and The Washington Post.[13]
His work has been the subject of articles in publications including National Geographic,[14] The New
York Times,[15] The Wall Street Journal, The New Yorker, NPR[16] and more.

His book, Spying on Whales: The Past, Present, and Future of Earth's Most Awesome Creatures (Viking
Press, 2018) was called “the best of science writing” by noted biologist E. O. Wilson, was positively
reviewed by NPR[17] and The New York Times,[18] and was a finalist in 2019 for the Best Young Adult
Science Book from the American Association for the Advancement of Science.[19]

References
1. Pyenson, Nick (2019). Spying on Whales: The Past, Present, and Future of Earth's Most
Awesome Creatures. Penguin. ISBN 978-0-7352-2458-2.
2. "Whale of a story for a Berkeley grad student and colleagues" (https://grad.berkeley.edu/ne
ws/profiles/nicholas-pyenson/). Berkeley Graduate Division. 2007-12-11. Retrieved
2022-06-28.
3. Pyenson, Nicholas David (2008). Understanding the paleoecology and evolution of
cetaceans in the Eastern North Pacific Ocean during the neogene (https://www.proquest.co
m/openview/ace4f6787e826b2d29ea6815bb279ebb/1) (Thesis). OCLC 908346332 (https://
search.worldcat.org/oclc/908346332).
4. "People | Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History" (http://naturalhistory.si.edu/rese
arch/paleobiology/research/pyenson-lab/people). naturalhistory.si.edu. Retrieved
2022-06-28.
5. Delsett, Lene Liebe; Pyenson, Nicholas D. (24 December 2021). "Early and fast rise of
Mesozoic ocean giants". Science. 374 (6575): 1554–1555. Bibcode:2021Sci...374.1554D (ht
tps://ui.adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2021Sci...374.1554D). doi:10.1126/science.abm3751 (http
s://doi.org/10.1126%2Fscience.abm3751). PMID 34941421 (https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.go
v/34941421). S2CID 245456946 (https://api.semanticscholar.org/CorpusID:245456946).
6. Pyenson, Nicholas D.; Goldbogen, Jeremy A.; Vogl, A. Wayne; Szathmary, Gabor; Drake,
Richard L.; Shadwick, Robert E. (May 2012). "Discovery of a sensory organ that coordinates
lunge feeding in rorqual whales". Nature. 485 (7399): 498–501.
Bibcode:2012Natur.485..498P (https://ui.adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2012Natur.485..498P).
doi:10.1038/nature11135 (https://doi.org/10.1038%2Fnature11135). PMID 22622577 (http
s://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/22622577). S2CID 1200222 (https://api.semanticscholar.org/C
orpusID:1200222).
7. McKenna, Megan F.; Cranford, Ted W.; Berta, Annalisa; Pyenson, Nicholas D. (October
2012). "Morphology of the odontocete melon and its implications for acoustic function".
Marine Mammal Science. 28 (4): 690–713. Bibcode:2012MMamS..28..690M (https://ui.adsa
bs.harvard.edu/abs/2012MMamS..28..690M). doi:10.1111/j.1748-7692.2011.00526.x (http
s://doi.org/10.1111%2Fj.1748-7692.2011.00526.x).
8. "Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers (PECASE) (Pyenson,
Nicholas - 2017)" (https://profiles.si.edu/display/n59009). profiles.si.edu. Retrieved
2022-06-28.
9. "Nick Pyenson | Penguin Random House" (https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/authors/2
173881/nick-pyenson). PenguinRandomhouse.com. Retrieved 2022-06-28.
10. Pyenson, Nick (23 June 2018). "Opinion | Wrap Your Mind Around a Whale" (https://www.nyt
imes.com/2018/06/23/opinion/sunday/wrap-your-mind-around-a-whale.html). The New York
Times.
11. Dehgan, Nick Pyenson,Alex (March 2021). "More Scientists Should Join the Diplomatic
Corps" (https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/we-need-more-scientists-in-the-u-s-diplo
matic-corps/). Scientific American. Retrieved 2022-06-28.
12. Magazine, Smithsonian. "How Long Have Sea Cows Thrived in the Arabian Gulf? We
Literally Stumbled on a Clue" (http://www.smithsonianmag.com/blogs/earth-optimism/2021/1
2/07/sea-cows-arabian-gulf/). www.smithsonianmag.com. Retrieved 2022-06-28.
13. Pyenson, Nick (29 December 2019). "We learned a lot about whales this year" (https://www.
washingtonpost.com/science/2019/12/28/we-learned-lot-about-whales-this-year/).
Washington Post.
14. "The Tiny Culprit Behind A Graveyard of Ancient Whales" (https://web.archive.org/web/2021
0303095621/https://www.nationalgeographic.com/science/article/the-tiny-culprit-behind-a-gr
aveyard-of-ancient-whales). Science. 2014-02-25. Archived from the original (https://www.na
tionalgeographic.com/science/article/the-tiny-culprit-behind-a-graveyard-of-ancient-whales)
on March 3, 2021. Retrieved 2022-06-28.
15. Imbler, Sabrina (23 December 2021). "This Sea Lizard Had a Grand Piano-Size Head and a
Big Appetite" (https://www.nytimes.com/2021/12/23/science/ichthyosaurs-whale-dinosaur-ev
olution.html). The New York Times.
16. Sofia, Madeline K. (2017-06-07). "Travel Through Time With A Whale Detective" (https://ww
w.npr.org/2017/06/07/531112519/travel-through-time-with-a-whale-detective). NPR.
Retrieved 2022-06-28.
17. Davies, Dave (1 August 2018). "Scientists Are 'Spying On Whales' To Learn How They Eat,
Talk And ... Walked?" (https://www.npr.org/2018/08/01/634456181/scientists-are-spying-on-
whales-to-learn-how-they-eat-talk-and-walked). Fresh Air. NPR.
18. Strauss, Duncan (5 October 2018). "No Fins or Mask Needed: Four New Books Take
Underwater Journeys" (https://www.nytimes.com/2018/10/05/books/review/orca-jason-m-col
by.html). The New York Times.
19. "Spying on Whales" (https://www.sbfprize.org/spying-on-whales). AAAS/Subaru Prize for
Excellence in Science Books. Retrieved 2022-06-28.

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