Derek Briggs

Briggs was educated at Trinity College Dublin where he graduated with a Bachelor of Arts degree in Geology in 1972. He went on to the University of Cambridge to work under British palaeontologist Harry Blackmore Whittington.{{cite book|last=Bryson|first=Bill|title=A short history of nearly everything|publisher=Black Swan|location=London|isbn=978-1-40909-548-4|year=2004|page=397|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=m3Yfj-KWgCEC}} He was awarded a PhD in 1976 on Arthropods from the Burgess Shale, Middle Cambrian, Canada.{{cite thesis |degree=PhD |first=Derek Ernest Gilmour|last=Briggs |title=Arthropods from the Burgess Shale, Middle Cambrian, Canada |publisher=University of Cambridge |year=1976 |url=http://ulmss-newton.lib.cam.ac.uk/vwebv/holdingsInfo?bibId=6452|author-link=Derek Briggs}}

While at the University of Cambridge, Briggs worked on the fossils of the Middle Cambrian Burgess Shale of British Columbia alongside a fellow student Simon Conway Morris, both under the supervision of Harry Whittington, on the exceptionally well-preserved Burgess Shale fauna.{{cite book|last=Morris|first=Simon Conway|title=The Crucible of Creation : the Burgess Shale and the Rise of Animals|year=1998|publisher=Oxford University Press|location=Oxford, UK|isbn=978-0-1985-0256-2|page=vii|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=EMITAQAAIAAJ}} The Burgess Shale project subsequently became one of the most celebrated endeavours in the field of palaeontology in the latter half of the 20th century. On 1 July 2008 he took over as Director of the Yale Peabody Museum of Natural History.{{cite web| author= Bhushan A|title= 'Visionary' Briggs to lead, expand Peabody|date= 27 November 2007| url= http://yaledailynews.com/blog/2007/11/27/visionary-briggs-to-lead-expand-peabody/ |work=yaledailynews.com |publisher=Yale Daily News |access-date= 13 July 2013}}{{cite web| author=Yale News |title=Derek Briggs Appointed Next Director of Yale's Peabody Museum of Natural History |date=20 November 2007 | url= http://news.yale.edu/2007/11/20/derek-briggs-appointed-next-director-yales-peabody-museum-natural-history |work= news.yale.edu |publisher=Yale University |access-date= 13 July 2013}} He became the G. Evelyn Hutchinson Professor of Geology and Geophysics at Yale in 2011.{{cite web| author= Yale News|title=Derek Briggs is named the Hutchinson Professor of Geology and Geophysics |date= 8 February 2011| url= http://news.yale.edu/2011/02/08/derek-briggs-named-hutchinson-professor-geology-and-geophysics |work= news.yale.edu|publisher= Yale University|access-date= 13 July 2013}}

Briggs's research is on the taphonomy, or preservation, and evolutionary significance of the exceptionally preserved fossil biotas known as Konservat-Lagerstätten – fossil formations that include evidence of faunal soft tissue. His work involves a range of approaches from experimental work on the factors controlling decay and fossilisation, through studies of early diagenetic mineralisation and organic preservation, to field work on a range of fossil occurrences.Derek E. G. Briggs, D. H. Erwin, and F. J. Collier. The fossils of the Burgess Shale. {{ISBN|156098659X}}Derek E. G. Briggs, C. Bartels, and G. Brassel. The fossils of the Hunsrück Slate. {{ISBN|0521117070}}Derek E. G. Briggs and Peter R. Crowther, eds. (2003). Palaeobiology II. Malden, Massachusetts: Blackwell Publishing. {{ISBN|0-632-05147-7}} and {{ISBN|0-632-05149-3}}.Derek E.G. Briggs, Nicholas H. Barton, Jonathan A. Eisen, David B. Goldstein, and Nipam H. Patel. [http://evolution-textbook.org/ Evolution.] {{ISBN|9780879696849}}

• 1999 – Fellow of the Royal Society
• 2000 – Premio Capo d'Orlando (Italian prize for palaeontology)
• 2000 – Lyell Medal, Geological Society of London
• 2001 – Boyle Medal, Royal Dublin Society/Irish Times
• 2002–2004 – President, Palaeontological Association
• 2003 – Honorary Member of the Royal Irish Academy
• 2006–2008 – President, Paleontological Society
• 2008 – Humboldt Research Award
• 2009 – Bownocker Medal, Ohio State University
• 2015 – Paleontological Society Medal
• 2019 – Member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences
• 2019 – Lapworth Medal, Palaeontological Association{{cite web|url=https://www.palass.org/awards-grants/awards/medal-and-award-winners-list|title=Medal and Award Winners List|publisher=Palaeontological Association |access-date=29 April 2020}}

His nomination for election to the Royal Society reads: {{centered pull quote|Professor Briggs has made several remarkable discoveries of exceptionally preserved fossils. His researches have elucidated their evolutionary significance, resulting in a significant shift in the focus of palaeontology toward these important windows on the life of the past. His work on the arthropods from the Burgess Shale of British Columbia has altered our perception of the nature of the Cambrian radiation. He demonstrated that morphological disparity among living arthropods is similar to that in the Cambrian, indicating that the functional and developmental constraints on form were operative from the earliest stages of metazoan evolution. He described the first evidence of the soft-tissues of conodonts, which resolved the vexed question of their affinities, with the recognition that these important fossils are the earliest known vertebrates. More recently he has pioneered a combination of new experimental approaches to the process involved in fossilization of the 'soft parts' of animals. His chemical and mineralogical investigations have demonstrated how soft tissues can be replicated at the cellular level in minerals such as apatite (the Medusa effect).{{cite web |url=https://collections.royalsociety.org/DServe.exe?dsqIni=Dserve.ini&dsqApp=Archive&dsqDb=Catalog&dsqCmd=show.tcl&dsqSearch=(RefNo==%27EC%2F1999%2F04%27) |title=EC/1999/04: Briggs, Derek Ernest Gilmor |publisher=The Royal Society |archive-date=29 September 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180929070400/https://collections.royalsociety.org/DServe.exe?dsqIni=Dserve.ini&dsqApp=Archive&dsqDb=Catalog&dsqCmd=show.tcl&dsqSearch=(RefNo==%27EC%2F1999%2F04%27) |location=London |url-status=dead }}}}

{{Reflist}}

{{FRS 1999}}

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Briggs, Derek}}

Category:Living people

Category:Irish paleontologists

Category:Academics of Goldsmiths, University of London

Category:Fellows of Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge

Category:Fellows of the Royal Society

Category:Lyell Medal winners

Category:Taphonomists

Category:1950 births

Category:Alumni of Trinity College Dublin

Category:Yale University faculty

Category:20th-century Irish biologists

Category:21st-century Irish scientists