Duncan is responsible for the day-to-day management of the Museum’s mineralogy and petrology collections, 'early life' palaeontology (including the Brasier collection), and trace fossils.
This includes:
Storage, conservation and rationalisation of collections
Documentation, digitisation and imaging
Developing the collections through new acquisitions
Answering enquiries and facilitating research visits and loans
Developing new exhibitions and displays
Public engagement
Collections-based research
His research interests are focused on: using the fossil record to understand the early evolution of animals, in particular their skeletons; how decay and preservation bias our understanding of exceptionally preserved fossils; and, the anatomy and evolution of the first vertebrates.
CV
Duncan has an MGeol in Geology with Palaeobiology from the University of Leicester, and completed a PhD at the University of Bristol using pioneering Synchrotron Radiation X-Ray Tomographic Microscopy to reveal the internal structure of the first vertebrate and brachiopod skeletons.
Since his PhD Duncan has held a number of postdoctoral research positions, most recently as a Leverhulme Early Career Fellow at the Museum of Natural History and Junior Research Fellow at Linacre College, co-funded by the John Fell Fund.
