ROM Research
The annual ROM Colloquium highlights recent discoveries by ROM curators and researchers.
The annual ROM Colloquium highlights recent discoveries by ROM curators and researchers.
By Oliver Haddrath, Ornithology Technician
DNA testing over the last 30 years has revolutionized many different fields ranging from health care to law enforcement to the study of human civilization and natural history. The ROM was quick to adopt techniques such as DNA sequencing and genetic fingerprinting as powerful tools to help study its collections.
Posting by Kirstin Bourne
Mushroom season has only just started and already ROM mycologists have been out in the field conducting research and searching for new specimens to add to the museum collection. Last week I got the chance to join Jean-Marc Moncalvo, the ROM’s Senior Curator of Mycology, along with Ph.D. Candidate Santiago Sanchez and Josie Carding, a summer intern in the Schad Gallery of Biodiversity for a few days of foraging and camping in Ontario’s Awenda Provincial Park.
Mystery portrait in the ROM's collection, later revealed to be Sunder Shyam Chadha in the film “Chhottii Babhi,” 1951
Posting by Brendt Hyde, Mineralogy Technician
The discovery of diamonds in the 1990’s marked a beginning for Canada’s first diamond mine, the Ekati Diamond Mine, located in the Northwest Territories. It also marked the beginning of the, still relatively young, diamond mining industry in Canada.
Posting by Brendt Hyde, Mineralogy Techncian
When ROM Ichthyologist Dr. Hernan Lopez-Fernandez was unable to attend a 2011 expedition to the Cuyuni River in Guyana, he found other creative ways to collaborate with fellow scientists. Dr. Lopez-Fernandez enabled Devin Bloom, a U of T graduate student with extensive experience in Guyana through previous joint expeditions, to attend in his place and share the specimen collections and tissue samples with the ROM.
By Ka Bo Tsang, ROM Assistant Curator, Chinese Pictorial Arts
Wu Huizhang wrote Tang-dynasty poems onto this folding fan, showing exceptional levels of concentration, writing skill, and compositional skill.
