Peter Makovicky was born
August 5th, 1972, in the US, but moved to Denmark at the tender age
of two months, and spent the next 22 years there. He received his BS (1993) and
MS (1995), both in Biology, from Copenhagen University. For the MS, Makovicky
produced a heavily over-punctuated thesis on theropod vertebral anatomy and
phylogeny. Seeing no market for such specialized and highly esoteric skills as
identifying theropod cervicals in Denmark, he trekked back across the Atlantic
for his Ph.D. at Columbia University and the American Museum of Natural
History. Despite maintaining a guise of being a theropod worker, Makovicky
discreetly conducted his dissertation research on neoceratopsian phylogeny, and
finally came out of the closet as an ornithischian worker to defend his
dissertation last June. Since then, he has been at the Field Museum in a newly
created position as the Assistant Curator of Dinosaurs.
Copyright: Palaeontologia Electronica, 30 August 2002