Paul Sereno
Class of 1975Alumni Recognition Award, 1997
Dr. Paul Sereno readily admits that his years at Naperville Central High School in the early 1970's were not always smooth sailing. His mischievous ways frequently earned the wrath of his teachers. A Chicago magazine feature in February of 1995, quotes Dr. Sereno as claiming, "I almost flunked out of school twice--for misbehavior." So what happened?
Paul Sereno has grown up to become one of the world's most preeminent paleontologists. He could be referred to as the "Indiana Jones of paleontology." He has been the subject of many magazine articles as well as the TV documentary entitled Skeletons in the Sand.
Paul majored in art and biology at Northern Illinois University in De Kalb. While earning a doctorate in geology at Columbia University, Sereno began studying dinosaur fossils at the American Museum of Natural History in New York. Traveling around the world, he studied and photographed dinosaur fossils in far flung locations such as China and Mongolia. In 1987, he joined the University of Chicago faculty where he is an Associate Professor in the Department of Organismal Biology and Anatomy. He teaches paleontology and evolution to graduate and undergraduate students and human anatomy to medical students.
Sereno has virtually traveled the world in search of dinosaurs. In 1993, a Sereno led expedition across the Sahara Desert resulted in the discovery of six tons of dinosaur bones, including two previously unknown dinosaur species. Dr. Sereno's discoveries could upset ideas about the evolution of dinosaurs after the continents drifted apart 130 million years ago. Included in the discovery was bones of a dinosaur standing seven feet tall at the hip and stretching more than 25 feet long. Another major find was a sauropod, a large, four-legged herbivore that as is believed to have been related to a sauropod that grazed North America about 150 million years ago.
Dr. Sereno has written numerous articles, books, and features on his work. He has been the subject of several Public Broadcasting features on his expeditions. National Geographic Explorer is currently making a one-hour documentary called Dinosaurs and Drifting Continents. In addition, Dr. Sereno has appeared on the McNeil-Lehrer Report, Good Morning America, Today Show, Voice of America radio, and others.
Dr. Sereno believes dinosaurs are, "the icons of a lost world." They give us our best picture of time past.
DR. SERENO'S MESSAGE TO STUDENTS: You have one life -- one chance to tangibly alter the world, to favorably tip the scale of justice. Go for it! Create, motivate, liberate.
