Jingmai O’Connor

Jingmai O’Connor is a Professor at the Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (IVPP), where she studies the origin and early evolution of birds. She became interested in evolution through her fi rst mentor Donald Prothero at Occidental College, where she fi nished her BA in 2004. As a Graduate Student in Residence at the Los Angeles Natural History Museum she studied Mesozoic birds with Luis Chiappe, receiving a PhD in Geological Sciences from the University of Southern California in 2009. Since graduating, she has been employed by the IVPP, where she also conducted research during both undergraduate and graduate studies. Although her background is in geology, she seeks to understand feathered dinosaurs and early birds beyond their skeletons, utilizing the incredible preservation of soft tissues in Chinese Jehol fossils to try to understand the developmental and molecular mechanisms that underlie this major evolutionary transition.