Brian Huber – Museum Curator



Brian Huber. Ph.D. Class of 1988. Ohio State University. Museum Curator.

Brian has been a curator at one of the world’s most renowned and respected natural history museums since 1988 – the same year he earned his Ph.D. in Geology from Ohio State University in Columbus, Ohio.

At the time, he had a choice between two jobs: one was in the oil industry applying his expertise in geophysics, and the other was as curator of the largest collection of microscopic fossils in the world.

He made his choice. And the rest, you could say, is natural history.

It has been an evolutionary journey from Brian’s boyhood growing up on a grain farm in rural Ohio to his current position. Especially when you consider the tight budget that Brian’s parents stretched to support four children. To make matters worse, a damaging property fire had set the family back financially.

So when Brian’s early interest in the environment started to grow into thoughts of pursuing a higher education, the Hubers faced the challenge of how to pay for college. They found the solution by way of a federal student loan.

Over the last thirteen years as curator, Brian has provided countless tours of the museum for school and community groups. He has hosted international scientists to the collections and has collaborated in research with many of them. He and his family have even shared their home with visiting scholars who couldn’t afford housing for their stay in Washington, DC.

To this day, Brian enjoys taking the long route to his office, walking through the museum exhibits and stopping to talk with visitors about the displays they’ve come to see.