National Museums Scotland
Nick Fraser, Keeper of Natural Sciences, Mesozoic Vertebrate palaeontology, + 44 (0)131 247 4007, nick.fraser@nms.ac.uk
Vladimir Blagoderov, Principal Curator of Invertebrates,+44 (0)131 247 4261, v.blagoderov@nms.ac.uk
Dr. Gordon Rintoul
The Board of Trustees is National Museums Scotland’s governing body. The Board is responsible for setting the National Museums Scotland’s strategic direction and for monitoring progress to achieve this. The management team is fully responsible for the day-to-day operation of the National Museums Scotland and for the implementation of strategy. The Board and management team work closely together in their different roles.
National Museums Scotland is a public body, and the Board is accountable to Scottish Ministers and the Scottish Parliament.
Trustees have a Code of Conduct which is on this website. Biographies of Trustees, Board minutes and Trustees’ registered interests are also posted on this website. Previous years' minutes can be viewed in the Trustees minutes archive.
Trustees bring to the National Museums Scotland a wide range of skills, backgrounds and experience in academic life, business, media, technology, education and community involvement. Individually they bring not only this experience, but also many different perspectives on how the National Museums Scotland can best serve the public.
Trustees also have a vital role to act as ambassadors for National Museums Scotland, both in gathering support for large projects and, equally importantly, in ensuring the widest possible understanding of National Museums Scotland’s collections and its services (locally, nationally and internationally).
National Museums Scotland can have up to 15 Trustees, who are all appointed by the Minister for Culture, Tourism & External Affairs. They are normally appointed for a term of four years, and may serve for a second term. Trustees are appointed through an open process where posts are advertised and candidates are interviewed.
The Director has overall responsibility for implementing the agreed strategic priorities and actions of the Board of Trustees of National Museums Scotland. The Director and Executive Team make up the top management tier of National Museums Scotland.
| Permanent (P) | Non – Permanent (NP) | |
|---|---|---|
| a) TOTAL scientific staff | 9 | |
| b) Scientific staff linked to Collections | 7.5 | |
| c) Post-docs / PhD students | 4 | |
| d) Others (Associates, etc.) | 7 | |
| TOTAL (a+b+c+d) | 26.5 |
| Permanent (P) | Non – Permanent (NP) | |
|---|---|---|
| e) Exhibitions | 0.5 | |
| f) Collection Managers / technicians | 7 | |
| g) Others | 1 | |
| TOTAL (e+f+g) | 8.5 |
- XRF (Oxford Instruments)
- X-radiography Faxitron Unit
- SEMS-EDS (CamScan MX 2500)
- XRD (PANalytical)
- FTIR (Nicolet) x 2
- PDA-UPLC
- Conservation lab
- Palaeontology lab including acid digestion
- 3D visualization suite
- Optical microscopy with Z-stacking
The research programme at NMS is divided into four major sections: Earth Systems, Palaeobiology, Invertebrates and Vertebrate Biology, Biodiversity and Conservation are two major strands connecting all research programs in the zoological disciplines, with specific research reflecting expertise of the staff and the taxonomic breadth of the collections.
History of collecting runs across all disciplines with noted natural historians such as Louis Dufresne (1752-1832), Robert Jamieson (1774-1854), Hugh Miller (1802-1856), Matthew Forster Heddle (1828-1897) and J.A. Harvie-Brown (1844-1916), and their contributions to the collections of National Museums Scotland.
Invertebrate research centres on the taxonomy, phylogeny and biogeography of a range of marine and terrestrial groups with global distributions, while also retaining some Scottish focus. There is particular expertise in fungus gnats, hoverflies, Mayflies, parasitic wasps, carrion beetles, mud-snails benthic copepods, and polychaetes. DNA biomonitoring and environmental DNA programmes are in development.
The Earth Systems collections have a major strength in Scottish minerals and ongoing research programmes into rock fault genesis, Pb-rich ore minerals and deep-sea vent mineralisation, erosion processes (terrestrial and Martian), and tectonic geomorphology and uses of minerals in paints and pigments.
Scotland’s Palaeozoic rocks represent important windows through which crucial stages in the early evolution of life on Earth can be viewed. Our Palaeozoic collections are renowned worldwide for specimens of eurypterids, plants, fishes and early tetrapods. They are central to our research on early vertebrate diversity and evolution, the reconstruction of evolutionary pattern and process, and uses of fossils and systematic methods in evolutionary developmental biology.
Taxonomic expertise in arthropods, brachiopods, and “enigmatic” Palaeozoic fossils sits together with fossil birds, dinosaurs and marine reptiles. There is also a focus on amber deposits including a growing collections of Burmese amber which is a joint programme with Invertebrates.
Core research within Vertebrate Biology looks at hybridisation between native and introduced mammal species, geographical variation and the effects of captivity on mammal and bird skeletal morphology, including ageing and pathology. Other research strands focus on molecular evolution and the biogeography and archaeology of Eurasian mammals, especially rodents and cetaceans.
National Museums Scotland hosts a research repository that contains staff publications: http://repository.nms.ac.uk/
| Typology | Primary types | Individual specimens/objects | % registered cards | % recorded cards in DB | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1.1 | Palaeontology | 250000 | |||
| 1.2 | Mineralogy | 45000 | |||
| 1.3 | Geology | 15000 | |||
| 1.4 | Meteorites | 240 |
| Typology | Primary types | Individual specimens/objects | % registered cards | % recorded cards in DB | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2.1 | Zoology | 9500000 |
National Museums Scotland (NMS) collections are comprehensive in their coverage of the natural world, although Botany is only represented by fossil plants. The collections are global in terms of their content and are sub-divided into four sections: Earth Systems, Invertebrate Biology Palaeobiology, and Vertebrate Biology.
NMS houses arguably the world’s foremost collection of Palaeozoic fishes which is widely visited by scientists from all over the world. Other important collections, such as the extensive North Atlantic whale collection, also attract significant numbers of international research visitors each year. NMS also holds numerous historic collections such as the Dufresne collection incorporating many insects and birds, the Hugh Miller fossil collection, and collections from the Challenger and William Speirs Bruce expeditions. NMS zoologists have a program of work assembling collections of marine mammals and deep sea invertebrates complementing the benthic survey work around Wales and the Irish Sea by the Museum of Wales. These are ecosystems of critical environmental concern but from which very few institutions are systematically sampling for these animals.
Patricia Convery, + 44 (0)131 247 4386 p.convery@nms.ac.uk
Nick Fraser, +44 (0)131 247 4007 nick.fraser@nms.ac.uk
The last two years have seen a growth from 1.8 million visitors to 2.2 million.
National Museums Scotland is part of the Edinburgh University doctoral training partnesrship
We offer school programmes, guided tours (including of the collections areas)
1. Systematics research
2. Conservation biology and hybridization
3. Digitization of collections and data aggregation
1. DNA Barcoding
2. Geological data aggregation and IGSN
3. Climate Change and public engagement