Paul Sereno, Ph. D.
Paleontologist,
University of Chicago
President and co-founder, Project Exploration

I see paleontology as 'adventure with a purpose.'  How else to describe a science that allows you to romp in remote corners of the globe, resurrecting gargantuan creatures that have never been seen?  And the trick to big fossil finds?  You've got to be able to go where no one has gone before."

Paul brushes off a skull of the giant crocodile, Sarcosuchus.
Photo © Mike Hettwer

Paul Sereno grew up in Naperville, a suburb of Chicago, and studied art and biology as an undergraduate at Northern Illinois University.  A behind-the-scenes museum tour opened his eyes to a life of science, art and adventure: "I never recovered from that visit.  In paleontology, I saw an irresistible combination of travel, adventure, art, biology and geology."

Sereno studied dinosaur fossils in far-flung collections in China and Mongolia while he earned a doctorate in geology at Columbia University and the American Museum of Natural History in New York.  In 1987, he joined the faculty of the University of Chicago, where he teaches paleontology and evolution to graduate and undergraduate students and human anatomy to medical students.

In 1999 Sereno co-founded Project Exploration, a nonprofit outreach organization dedicated to bringing the excitement of scientific discovery to the public and providing innovative educational opportunities for city kids and girls. Sereno is also one of National Geographic's esteemed Explorers-in-Residence.

Discoverer of dinosaurs on five continents and leader of dozens of expeditions, Sereno's field work began in 1988 in the foothills of the Andes in Argentina, where his team discovered the first dinosaurs to roam the Earth - the predators Herrerasaurus and the primitive Eoraptor, the "dawn stealer." These expeditions revealed the most complete picture yet of the dawn of the dinosaur era, some 225 million years ago.

In the early 1990's Sereno's research shifted to the Sahara, and the search for Africa's lost world of dinosaurs. Expeditions to Niger and Morocco resulted in Sereno's team discovering and naming: Afrovenator, a new 27-foot-long meat-eater; skeletons of a 70-foot-long plant-eater he named Jobaria; a bizarre fish-eating dinosaur named Suchomimus, with huge claws and a sail on its back; and the 45-foot-long plant-eater Nigersaurus.  Sereno and his team also discovered the most fleet-footed meat-eater, 30-foot-long Deltadromeus, and the skull of a huge, T. rex-sized meat-eater Carcharodontosaurus.  Besides new and unusual dinosaurs, Sereno's team stumbled on the world's largest crocodile, the 40-foot-long Sarcosuchus, dubbed SuperCroc.

Other expeditions have taken Sereno and his team to India and the Gobi Desert in Inner Mongolia.

The author of books and stories in National Geographic and Natural History and subject of many documentaries, Sereno's recognition includes Chicago Tribune's Teacher of the Year Award (1993), Chicago magazine's Chicagoan of the Year (1996), Newsweek magazine's The Century Club (1997), People magazine's 50 Most Beautiful People (1997), Esquire's 100 Best People in the World (1997), Boston Museum of Science's Walker Prize for extraordinary contributions in paleontology (1997), and Columbia University's University Medal for Excellence (1999).