Bolortsetseg Minjin, 2009 Women of Discovery Earth Award

Bolortsetseg Minjin

Director of the Institute for the Study of Mongolian Dinosaurs

Born: 1973-02-05

Education: Ph.D in Paleontology, New York University; Currently doing Post-Doctoral work at Montana State University; Master's degree in Invertebrate Paleontology from the Mongolian University of Science and Technology

Achievements

Discoveries: Locating 67 dinosaur fossils in the Gobi Desert in the span of one week - a feat chronicled in Science News. Noteworthy discoveries she has made include a skull of one of the largest Cretaceous mammals from Mongolia, first mammals from the Mongolian locality of Osh, skulls of young individuals of the dinosaur Psittacosaurus, and a partial skeleton of a rare troodontid dinosaur. Greatest accomplishment is the establishment of the Institute for the Study of Mongolian Dinosaurs.

Expeditions: Bolortsetseg has conducted extensive fieldwork in Mongolia, starting with geologic mapping while an undergraduate student. Since that time, she participated in five paleontological expeditions with the Mongolian Academy of Sciences and the AMNH, three as co-leader of a joint expedition with Georgia Southern University, and three as expedition leader of a joint expedition with the Museum of the Rockies.

Biography

Bolortsetseg Minjin was born in Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia and received her Master's degree in Invertebrate Paleontology from the Mongolian University of Science and Technology. While a graduate student, she joined the paleontological expeditions of the Mongolian Academy of Sciences and the American Museum of Natural History (AMNH). Although her initial training was in invertebrate fossils, she proved to have a sharp eye for small mammal fossils, and while working with the AMNH expeditions, she found many skulls and jaws of Cretaceous mammals (the Cretaceous period marked the heyday of dinosaurs and ended 65 million years ago).

In 2007, Bolortsetseg founded the non-profit "Institute for the Study of Mongolian Dinosaurs" (ISMD) in Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia. The goals of the Institute are to develop a self-sustaining, active community of Mongolian paleontologists and a museum in Mongolia to preserve dinosaurs and other national treasures. Rapid progress has been made, and with the support of donors, a research facility with preparation lab has been constructed in Mongolia. In 2008, Bolortsetseg accepted a post-doctoral research position with Jack Horner of the Museum of the Rockies to work on the paleobiology of the Cretaceous dinosaur Psittacosaurus. Since 2005, Jack has worked with Bolortsetseg in Mongolia and has actively supported her efforts to improve Mongolian paleontology.

With the exception of Bolortsetseg, all Ph.D. vertebrate paleontologists in Mongolia are approaching retirement age, and there is not a young cadre of well trained paleontologists in Mongolia to carry the torch. This is obviously a problem for Mongolia, which has a very rich fossil record, but the potential absence of Mongolian paleontologists threatens the long standing tradition of collaboration between Mongolian and foreign scientists. Bolortsetseg and the ISMD are feverishly working to fix this problem; they are supporting 2 Mongolian students with graduate fellowships and another student has been accepted by the Museum of the Rockies for Ph.D. studies. Through her efforts, Bolortsetseg is making great strides to ensure a brighter future for Mongolian paleontology.

Fun Facts

Favorite Item to have in the field: A GPS. There are no road signs in the Gobi and without a gps it would be easy to get lost.