Miss Zoe Hughes

I am responsible for the care of the fossil Cephalopod collection and the recent and fossil Brachiopod collections within the Invertebrates and plants division of the department of Earth Sciences. My responsibilities include the general care of the collections including answering enquires and providing access to the material. Another part of my role is supervision of and assisting visitors to the collection including providing tours to various groups. Another aspect of my role is that of working with exhibitions relating to the collections.

Within the collections I have been working to make the physical organisation of the collection more up to date in terms of possible acquisition areas and taxonomy. Key considerations have also been the Airless project which is causing collections expansion and also some big acquisitions which space must be allocated to.

I am also involved in public outreach, I have participated in a variety of events at the NHM internally, such as Science uncovered, lates events, dinosnores and nature lives. I've also designed and led activities at various external events such as the Lyme Regis Fossil Festival and the Yorkshire Fossil Festival.

I participate in fieldwork primarily in the UK but have also been on trips to Morocco and China. It is important to me that I attend conferences in order to maintain communications and create new links with international researchers across my taxonomic groups. By attending International conferences I have increased the numbers of visitors in the collections for which I am responsible.