Departmental News

Posted:  Dec 09, 2020 - 12:00pm

The University of New Mexico (UNM), which is the state’s only Carnegie-designated R1 research institution and one of 14 R1 Hispanic Serving Institutions (HSI) in the country, is proud to offer a brand-new graduate-level research experience through the Museum Research Traineeship (MRT). In a state rich with history and tradition, the MRT is dedicated to increasing diversity in STEM and encouraging collaboration across disciplines in order to better understand our past as well as our future. 

A collaborative effort among the Museum of Southwestern Biology, the Maxwell Museum of Anthropology, and the Paleobiology Collection in Earth and Planetary Sciences at UNM, the MRT is an interdisciplinary training program that utilizes our institution’s world-class museum collections to better understand critical contemporary issues, including past and future changes to the global environment and their impacts on human communities and biological and earth system resources.

Throughout their graduate programs, MS and PhD students will be exposed to cutting-edge imaging and material science technology to develop new ways to interpret museum objects, such as biological specimens, pottery sherds, fossils, geological samples, and associated data.  By breaking traditional disciplinary boundaries within museum science, students will not only have an opportunity to expand our current understanding of these histories but to also translate their findings in a way that will ultimately impact future research, education, and policy.  Learn more