Back in 1908 when Annie Montague Alexander
envisioned a natural history museum on the Cal campus she aspired to
create a comprehensive research museum where naturalists could hone
their research skills, expand their understanding of West Coast vertebrates,
and create a legacy for future scientists. Working closely with Alexander,
the museum’s first director, Joseph Grinnell,
set forth the museum’s core philosophy that the museum devote
itself to evolutionary studies and the study of terrestrial vertebrates
in relation to their environments. Today that philosophy still holds
true as scientists merge studies of preserved specimens with field observations
and biochemical analysis of tissues. Field and laboratory research remains
an essential part of the museum’s work to increase understanding
of evolutionary biology.
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Why your gift is so important
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Today the state provides less than
13% of the Museum’s funding. Therefore, the support we receive
from alumni and friends is essential to the future growth and development
of the Museum and its research.
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Private gifts from alumni and friends support important
field and laboratory research not covered by state funding. Such support
is crucial to recruit the most talented graduate students and faculty.
Private support directly enhances the museum’s ability to help
students and faculty become environmental leaders, to develop innovative
approaches to biodiversity understanding and to advance intellectual
discourse and the formation of conservation policy.
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Museum of Vertebrate Zoology faculty and students
continue to break new ground in biodiversity conservation, ecology,
population biology and genetics. Your partnership enables this tradition
of innovation to continue.
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Museum of Vertebrate Zoology curators, staff, and
students conduct research that is either directly applicable to conservation
biology, or that provides essential baseline information that is used
in the conservation of species and associated habitats.
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The Museum's faculty sponsor 20 to 25 graduate students
in the Ph.D. program in any given year, host several post-doctoral
scholars, and serve as mentors to a large number of undergraduates
engaged in honors or independent research experiences.
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The Museum of Vertebrate Zoology has been one of this
country's premier institutions in the training of vertebrate biologists
over the past century. MVZ has been a leader in intellectual achievement
through individual publications ranging from scientific journal papers
and specialized monographs to books and magazine articles of broad
public interest. The nearly 4,000 individual publications generated
by the faculty, research staff, students, and post-doctoral associates
over the past 90 years encompass virtually all aspects of vertebrate
evolutionary and ecological biology.
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The first major conservation activity of the Museum
involved the establishment of Yosemite National Park. Museum staff
members conducted the first substantive biological surveys of the
park, and Joseph Grinnell played a key role in determining the park's
boundaries and in developing policies concerning wildlife and its
protection within the park. The Museum continues to play a role in
the state’s conservation policies through advocacy, publications
and sharing of research
Your investment in the Museum of Vertebrate Zoology is an investment
in the people and in the innovative research that can make a real difference
in our world. Thank you for your support!
