Linda Ivany
Linda Ivany
Linda Ivany
Paleoecologist
Linda Ivany is a paleoecologist. She studies the chemistry of fossil seashells to learn about the ancient animals that made them, as well as the environments those animals lived in.
Linda has been interested in geology and paleontology for as long as she can remember. As a child, she collected modern and fossil shells during visits to her grandparents in Florida. Her parents encouraged and supported her interests, even giving her her first rock hammer.
Linda went to Harvard University for her Ph.D. and was later a Fellow at the University of Michigan. She moved to Syracuse in 2000 and is now a Professor of Earth and Environmental Sciences at Syracuse University.
Linda’s biggest challenge has been feeling like an outsider during her career. She watched as her male peers leveraged informal social connections to build professional research networks while the (few) women scholars were often left out. With more women entering the field today, she believes things are getting better for the women scientists coming after her.
What advice would you give to a girl or young woman who wants to be a paleontologist?
“Spend as much time as possible out in the natural world really looking at things. Draw them, as that forces you to pay attention to the details. If you’re lucky enough to find someone who can help you learn, take advantage of that, and tell them you appreciate them! Cultivate a group of like-minded peers and help inspire each other. Take some math classes and learn how to program, as those are the tools of research today. Mostly, realize that YOU can make the next big discovery, develop the next big theory, set the course for research in the future, be a leader in the field.”
Selected works by Linda Ivany
Ivany, L.C., and J. Czekanski-Moir. 2019. Reined-in richness. Nature Ecology & Evolution 3: 520–521. Link
Ivany, L.C., W.P. Patterson, and K.C. Lohmann. 2000. Cooler winters as a possible cause of mass extinctions at the Eocene/Oligocene boundary. Nature 407: 887–890. Link
Ivany, L.C., S. Van Simaeys, E.W. Domack, and S.D. Samson. 2006. Evidence for an earliest Oligocene ice sheet on the Antarctic Peninsula. Geology 34: 377–380. Link
Ivany, L.C., K.C. Lohmann, F. Hasiuk, D.B. Blake, A. Glass, R.B. Aronson, and R.M. Moody. 2008. Eocene climate record of a high southern latitude continental shelf: Seymour Island, Antarctica. Geological Society of America Bulletin 120: 659–678. Link
Ivany, L.C., C. Pietsch, J.C. Handley, R. Lockwood, W.D. Allmon, and J.A. Sessa. 2018. Little lasting impact of the Paleocene-Eocene Thermal Maximum on shallow marine molluscan faunas. Science Advances 4: eaat5528. Link
Further reading
2009. PaleoPeople: Linda Ivany. The Paleontology Portal, interview conducted August 2009. Link
Barras, C. 2020. Squid-like creature that looked like a giant paperclip lived 200 years. New Scientist, 4 November 2020. Link
Bernardi, D. 2020. Using the past to predict the future. Syracuse University College of Arts and Sciences, A&S News, 10 August 2020. Link
Coin, G. 2014. Syracuse University prof: Warm Antarctica 40 million years ago supports climate change theory today. Syracuse.com, 25 April 2014. Link
Video & audio content
ALLELE Series: Linda Ivany: “The Pace of Life - The (often) missing element in studies of evolution using fossils.” Video, 15 October 2015, via Vimeo. Link