Canadian Studies is pleased to introduce Joshua Zimmt as the latest recipient of an Edward Hildebrand Graduate Research Fellowship. Joshua is a Ph.D. candidate in integrative biology and affiliate of the UC Museum of Paleontology, and is studying the link between climate change and mass extinction in the fossil record.
Joshua's Hildebrand Fellowship will support his dissertation research on the exceptional fossil and rock records on Anticosti Island, Québec. Joshua hopes to understand how climate change may have caused the Late Ordovician mass extinction, one of the largest known extinction events. Recent studies have linked this disaster, which led to an estimated extinction of 85% of marine species, to a drop in global temperature. By producing a better understanding of this critical interval in the history of life, Joshua's research will serve as a case study of global change that can be used to better understand our rapidly changing modern world.
Joshua holds a B.Sc. in geology from the College of William & Mary. His work was awarded the American Paleontology Association's Best Paper Prize in 2021. In addition to his research, Joshua is the student lead on the ACCESS program, an initiative by the UC Museum of Paleontology to bring engaging paleobiology and geology lessons to community college classrooms around the country.