Scientists Live: Mason Heberling

Postdoctoral Research Fellow, Mason Heberling, will do a broadcast on Facebook Live to share the importance and power of museum specimen digitization! Botanists at the Carnegie Museum of Natural History have recently embarked on a three-year project to digitize nearly 190,000 plant specimens collected in the region. This effort is part of the Mid-Atlantic Megalopolis Project (mamdigitization.org), a network of thirteen herbaria spanning the densely populated urban corridor from Washington, D.C. to New York City to achieve a greater understanding of our urban areas, including the unique industrial and environmental history of the greater Pittsburgh area. How have the plants of Pittsburgh changed over the past century? In this interactive broadcast, Mason will introduce the plant collection at the museum (>0.5 million specimens strong, dating back the 1800s), the uses of these specimens to understanding the world around us, and the value of digitization and making specimens freely accessible to scientists, students, and the public. Each specimen has an important scientific and cultural story to tell.

The broadcast will begin at 10:30 a.m. and will include a question and answer segment.

Tune in at facebook.com/carnegiemnh. A recording will be posted later for those unable to watch live.