Dr. Bonnan is moving East

I wanted to wait until I could make this announcement official.  Now that everything is in place, I can.  Starting this fall semester 2012, I will be a new Associate Professor in the Biology Program at the Richard Stockton College in New Jersey.  I am honored to be stepping into the position previously held by Dr. Roger Wood, a noted turtle paleontologist, and I am thrilled about the new opportunities this position will give me both in teaching and research.  Of course, as a paleontologist it is exciting to be on the East Coast and close to so many major institutions and museums.  I have already received a very warm welcome from the Stockton community, and I am looking forward to working with my new colleagues at Stockton.

This decision, however, means I will be departing my current position as Associate Professor at Western Illinois University in the Department of Biological Sciences.  WIU gave me an opportunity to begin my career fresh out of graduate school in a tenure-track position, and to build both my teaching and research experience.  I will miss many colleagues and friends at WIU, and I have fond memories of overseeing and advising numerous undergraduate and graduate students in scientific research.

To all my former undergraduate and graduate students, you should know that you have helped me become a better teacher, and a professor always learns more from his students than he imparts to them.

In the near future, I will be updating The Evolving Paleontologist to include information about my courses, office hours, and other ways for students at Stockton to reach and interact with me.  I will also continue to post commentary on all-things evolutionary (but especially dinosaur-y … is that a word?) and in my own lab.

I again feel honored and fortunate to have a career that allows me to continue walking alongside sauropod dinosaurs while exploring the bigger picture of vertebrate functional morphology and evolutionary anatomy.

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