SMLI Annual Membership Meeting featuring Mongolian Paleontologist Dr. Bolortsetseg Minjin. Dr. Minji
*The event has already taken place on this date: Sat, 10/02/2021
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Join the Science Museum of Long Island as we celebrate and review a challenging but successful year and show our appreciation for all of the people who joined us on the journey. Featuring fun and education for the whole family with guest speaker Mongolian Paleontologist Bolortsetseg Minjin, Ph.D. and action packed dinosaur themed activities for the kids including: exploring our paleo lab, excavating real fossils & even making your own fossil to take home with you! Enjoy dinner and mingling at the outdoor food truck court afterwards! Free for all members but registration is required. Members and Guest are invited to stay afterwards for our special outdoor movie screening of Jurassic Park for a special members rate of only $5 per person for members and $12 per person for non-members!
Food: Grover's Grub and Miss Krispy's
Bolortsetseg Minjin is a paleontologist who focuses on the protection of fossils in her native country, Mongolia. She received her Ph.D. in 2007 from a joint program between the American Museum of Natural History and the City University of New York. Shortly after completing her graduate work, she founded the Institute for the Study of Mongolian Dinosaurs (ISMD), which over the past 10 years has launched expeditions that have discovered new fossil species, has sponsored and trained Mongolian graduate students in paleontology and geology, and has inspired children in the remote Gobi Desert through on-site educational programs. In 2012 Bolortsetseg played a pivotal role in stopping the sale of an illegally collected skeleton of Tyrannosaur baatar from Mongolia, and coordinated the repatriation, return, and exhibition of this specimen in Mongolia.
She also worked closely with the US Department of Homeland Security to reveal a vast illegal market in the sale of Mongolian fossils. Much of this network was subsequently shut down, and she spearheaded the return of over 30 stolen dinosaurs to Mongolia. In 2012 she returned to Mongolia to help establish the Central Museum of Mongolian Dinosaurs where the Tyrannosaurus bataar and other specimens were displayed. Initially a temporary museum was constructed in Sukhbaatar square in Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia, and huge lines formed to see Mongolia's first dinosaur celebrity.
Bolortsetseg received a 2009 Earth Award from Wings WorldQuest and is a 2010 Emerging Explorer of National Geographic. In 2013, she was awarded a Polar Star by the Mongolian Government for her efforts to protect the fossil heritage of Mongolia and in 2017, she received the Raymond M. Alf Award for Excellence in Paleontological Research and Education from Raymond M. Alf Museum of Paleontology, Claremont, CA, USA. Her latest project involves creating a dinosaur conservation park that includes the Flaming Cliffs (Bayanzag) and Tugrugiin shiree in Mongolia.
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