V. J. P. Syverson

Science and Engineering Building 1, Ste 370, 5200 N Lake Rd, Merced, CA| (559) 288-2872 | E-mail: vsyverson@gmail.com

Summary

Ph.D. paleontologist with expertise in writing/illustrating/editing technical reports, manuals, and scientific papers, statistics/data science, collections management, teaching and curriculum development, website and database development. Familiar with geology of California, Great Basin, and Upper Midwest. Comfortable working remotely; available to relocate within California in 2020.

Skills

Experience in paleontological resource management in California, fieldwork, and management. Strong background in statistics and geoscience; experience in technical editing and illustration, including for paleo/archeo consulting; peer-reviewed publication record, public speaking in conferences and classrooms; proficient R programmer. Strong quantitative, visual, and communication skills. Comfortable with team projects and remote work.

Technical: R (many libraries), HTML5/CSS/JS (jQuery, d3) with JSON APIs, SQL (MySQL, PostgreSQL), Python (scipy, numpy); Github, Adobe CS, Unix, Microsoft Office/LibreOffice

Education

University of Michigan – Ann Arbor, Michigan 2009-2014

Ph.D., Geology (Paleontology)

California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, California 2003-2008

B.S., Geology.

Experience

Professional publications (full academic CV available upon request)

• 10 papers published/accepted in peer reviewed journals (Paleobiology, Bulletin of Marine Science, Eos, Quaternary Science Reviews, PLoS One, PalArch JVP, Paleontologica Electronica)

• 10 conference abstracts as first author, 16 as collaborator; 2 invited seminar talks; doctoral thesis

Paleontological consulting,, fieldwork, and technical communication

• Senior paleontologist, PaleoWest Archeology (June 2018 – present).
  Planning and conducting pre-construction paleontological sensitivity surveys, writing PRMMPs, supervising and reporting on ongoing project monitoring and mitigation, producing technical reports, handling specimen curation.
  Projects supervised: City of Fresno Regional Transmission Main (Phase II), Palen Solar Plant (survey and PRMMP only), Desert Harvest Solar Project.

• Technical editor, Paleo Solutions/Rocky Mountain Paleo Solutions (October 2015 – June 2017).
  Edited technical reports (planning, permitting, surveys, compliance, and mitigation) on paleontological, archeological, and environmental resources.

• Consulting editor, American Journal Experts (February 2015-June 2017).
  In-field English-language and technical editing services on scientific publications.

• Technical writer, eSolar (June 2008-July 2009).
  Consulted with engineers and field operators to write documentation and make diagrams for solar-thermal field manuals. OSHA 10-hour certification.

Teaching, management, and museum collections management

• Geology and biology professor, Clovis Community College (2018- ).
  Courses taught: Physical Geology (lecture + lab), Introduction to Earth Science (lecture + lab), Introduction to Life Sciences (lab). Wrote and published a new lab manual for the latter course.

• Graduate teaching assistant, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor (2010-2016).
  Courses taught: Evolution and the Earth (discussion), Invertebrate Paleontology Lab (lab + field trip)

• Lead builder with Nifty Hoops (2011-2016).
  Ran volunteer and employee crews to build hoop houses on small farms in Southeast Michigan.

• Museum collections management assistant (Summer 2010, 2011, 2012; Fall 2011, 2012).
  Assisted collections manager in managing undergraduate employees, organizing specimens, digitizing collection information, and producing 2D and 3D scans of specimens in type collection.

Programming and statistics

Postdoctoral researcher, University of Wisconsin, Madison, 2016-present

• Developed text-mining software in R + PostgreSQL to extract mentions of numbered museum specimens from a large corpus of scientific literature. I’m currently developing it further into a collections management tool. geodeepdive.org, github.org/UW-Deepdive-Infrastructure

• Maintained and improved UI/UX functionality for Paleobiology Database. I have rewritten existing JS code for API-based graphical exploration interface, redesigned pages and tables in the MySQL backend, and designed and implemented new analysis tools, resulting in better usability and increased traffic. I am still active on this project. paleobiodb.org, github.org/paleobiodb

• Worked on team designing an API for interoperability between Paleobiology Database and other biology and biogeography databases (ePANDDA/ELC). epandda.org

Doctoral student and independent researcher, University of Michigan, 2008-2016

• Correlated ecological factors with defensive adaptations to reconstruct relationships between predators, prey, and parasites in the Paleozoic, revealing preferences of predators and parasites.

• Analyzed prey animal regrowth to estimate predation through history of Earth's oceans, demonstrating that predation in ancient oceans was lower than in any modern environment except the deep sea.

• Used size data measured from submarine videos to identify age cohorts and estimate recruitment, growth, and injury rates in a population of modern deep-sea crinoids.

• Developed and used a method for characterizing arbitrary branching forms to characterize the changes in crinoid arms over their evolutionary history, showing that crinoids responded to increasing predation by adopting less vulnerable branching forms.

• Used nonparametric statistics and time-series analysis to identify two species of condors and show that climate change did not result in body size changes in birds or mammals at La Brea.

Profiles

Github: https://github.com/vjpsyverson

ResearchGate: https://www.researchgate.net/profile/V_Syverson/

Google Scholar: https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=xZZM1EMAAAAJ&hl=en

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/valerie-syverson-4a46093/