In the history of palaeontology, Philip J. Currie occupies the ground between patient observation and the larger claims it makes possible.
Philip J. Currie was born at Brampton in 1949. His recorded nationality is Canada. He was educated at McGill University and University of Toronto.
Twentieth-century science was collaborative, expensive and political: the questions were pursued by teams, and the answers had consequences that reached well past the laboratory.
His working life was spent at University of Alberta, where the work centred on paleontology.
Palaeontology reads the fossil record as a document, and every reading rewrites part of the history of life.
That the work was done from Canada matters to the story. Science has never been evenly distributed, and where a person is based has always shaped which problems are reachable and whose results get read.
Recognition followed: Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada.
What that record amounts to is a body of palaeontology that later workers could build on without re-checking. That is the practical test of a scientific life, and it is a harder one than fame.
Philip J. Currie is still working, and the final assessment of his contribution has not been made - the ordinary condition of a living scientist.
Achievements
- Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada
- Held posts at University of Alberta
- Educated at McGill University and University of Toronto
- Fields of research: paleontology
