Scott Wing

I am a research scientists and curator of fossil plants at the National Museum of Natural History of the Smithsonian Institution. I grew up in New Orleans, Louisiana, and Durham, North Carolina, but became interested in paleontology while an undergraduate at Yale. After completing college and Ph.D. in New Haven I briefly worked for the U.S. Geological Survey, then joined the Smithsonian Institution National Museum of Natural History in 1984, where I have worked ever since. My research focuses on fossil plants, paleoclimate, and ecosystem response to climate change.  I have long worked to uncover the causes and effects of the Paleocene-Eocene Thermal Maximum, a sudden global warming event 56 million years ago that has many parallels with current, human-caused changes in the atmosphere and climate.