On Thursday, Phil Unitt will give his final lecture before retiring as the San Diego Natural History Museum's curator of birds and mammals. The Nat talk will let you hear directly from the person who has shaped our understanding of Southern California’s wildlife over the decades.
For 37 years, Unitt has been building and caring for The Nat’s extensive bird and mammal collection. But later this month, he’ll be retiring.
"One thing that's been very gratifying through my career is that all of our science staff has maintained a commitment to the value of the collection and the use of the collection and the use of the collections in understanding environmental change," Unitt said. "So future generations are going to come up with uses that I can't even possibly imagine."
His work has revolved around a basic question: What can the past teach us about the future? The answer: a lot. For one, preserved specimens help us understand environmental change and guide conservation. But Unitt’s talk will not focus only on the specimens.
"But the people behind it and how they started from absolutely nothing in poverty to develop this incredible resource over 150 years," Unitt explained.
The Nat is home to one of the most significant natural history collections in the western United States.
"We're fortunate that we have a long history of study and with the work that we've done here at the museum, both with the collection and with our Bird and Mammal Atlas projects, that we could say that the status and distribution of birds in San Diego County is among the best known anywhere in the world," Unitt added.
And Unitt wants to recognize the dedicated people who have been contributing to the collection since the 1800s. He says he wants to counter a dehumanization of science that suggests scientific knowledge can occur without passionate people.
"Nothing happens unless people have ideas and can discuss the ideas and debunk the ideas," Unitt said. "So in this talk, I want to talk not only about the collection and its applications, but the people behind it and how we got there and in the process make science a little bit more human and, therefore, I hope, a little bit more accessible."
Phil Unitt’s Journey Through the Collection takes place Thursday at 7 p.m. at the San Diego Natural History Museum in Balboa Park. Parking is free after 8 p.m.
Tickets are $12 for members and $15 for non-members. Theater doors open at 6:30 p.m. Tickets to attend virtually can be purchased here. Tickets to attend in person can be purchased here.
And next week, look for my story looking back at Unitt's four decades at The Nat.
