Miss Miranda Lowe
Principal Curator, Crustacea
Division: LS Invertebrates Division
Summary
Miranda Lowe is a Principal Curator and museum scientist at the Natural History Museum, London. With over two decades worth of collections management and curatorial skills she cares for a plethora of historically important specimens from both the Challenger and discovery oceanic expeditions.
Her scientific expertise is in peracarid crustacea and a with a light touch in coral taxonomy. With that she manages directly both the crustacea and Cnidaria and assciated minor phyla collections.
As well as her management of a curatorial team she also presents lectures on both curatorial research and popular science: Miranda has appeared in the BBC Radio 4 series ‘Natural Histories’ in an episode on Sea Anemones (2015), BBC Four – Britain’s Whale Hunters: The Untold Story (2014) and CBBC Absolute Genius with Dick and Dom: Darwin episode (2013). After a yearlong secondment in 2006 to learn about exhibitions and gallery interpretation in a museum environment she has been passionate ever since about the role that museum exhibitions play in our understanding of the natural world.
Miranda plays an active role on committees such as Natural Sciences Collections Association (as Collections at Risk Rep), Society for the Preservation of Natural History Collections (Member At Large) and the Society for the History of Natural History (Membership Coordinator) for which Sir David Attenborough is Patron. As a volunteer STEM ambassador and communicator of science she does outreach in schools and behind the scenes at the Natural History Museum, London. She mentors students as part of the Social Mobility Foundation ‘Aspiring Professionals’ scheme and the Prince's Trust. In 2013, Miranda was one of three finalists for the National Diversity Awards ‘Positive Role Model Award for Race, Religion & Faith’ receiving a Certificate of Excellence for her achievement.
Publications
Ware C, Lowe M, Sivell D, Barclay MVL, Beale J, Ellis L, Feneru F, Honey M, Lees D, Notton DG, Reilly N, Sterling MJ, Thomas TJ (2018) The Wildlife Garden at the Natural History Museum: Developments of the flora and fauna update 2017-2018 - twenty three years of species recording. London Naturalist, 97 (2017) : 135 - 152.
Das S, Lowe M (2018) Nature Read in Black and White: decolonial approaches to interpreting natural history collections. Journal of Natural Science Collections., 6 : 4 - 14.
Ware C, Lowe M, Sivell D, Cooper L, Greaves P, Root T, Shaw P, Shubert E, Spooner B, Strekopytov S (2017) Further developments of the flora and fauna of the Wildlife Gardens at the Natural History Museum, London: Part 2 - Twenty one years of species recording. London Naturalist, 96 : 126 - 181.
Pavesi L, Wildish DJ, Gasson P, Lowe M, Ketmaier V (2015) Further morphological and molecular studies of driftwood hoppers (Crustacea: Amphipoda: Talitridae) from Mediterranean/north-east Atlantic coastlines. Journal of Natural History, 49 (17-18) : 1047 - 1071. doi: 10.1080/00222933.2014.974708
Giles Miller C, Lowe M (2008) The Natural History Museum Blaschka collections. Historical Biology, 20 (1) : 51 - 62. doi: 10.1080/08912960701677531
LOWE M, MILLER G (2008) A scientific perspective on the acquisition and display of the Natural History Museum Blaschka Collections, In: Art forms from the Ocean, National Glass Centre : Sunderland. 54 pp. 11 - 18.
MILLER CG, Lowe M (2006) Sculpted in glass. 6 : 17 - 18.
Supervision
Doctorate (PhD) Co-supervisor to Scott B
Co supervisor(s): Carine M
Decolonising the Sloane Herbarium
Queen Mary University of London, London, United Kingdom
Funding: Arts and Humanities Research Council
1/10/2021 - on going.