Biography
Dr. Spencer Hellert is a paleontologist and an Assistant Professor within the School of Design. Her research focuses on how the modular integration of biological traits affects evolution. She has used many different taxa to do this, ranging from dinosaurs to dung beetles. Her work has taken her across the globe to photograph and 3D scan modern and fossil bones. She then uses animation software to turn the shape of the bones into math to study changes in biological shape over evolutionary time. Dr. Hellert’s pedagogy focuses on teaching science using creative expression. She teaches of variety of natural history courses, including Dinosaur Ecology and Evolution, Oceanography, Natural Disasters, and Geology. She received her Ph.D. in geology and biology before completing a postdoc in the Field Museum of Natural History.
Instructional Areas
Science
Creative Practice and Research Interests
Paleontology
Degrees
M.S., Ecol, Evol, Conservation Biol University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign 2014
Ph.D., Geological Sciences - Evolution, Ecology & Behavior Indiana University 2019