About
John E. Simmons has a B.A. in Systematics & Ecology and an M.A. in Museum Studies. He began his career as a Zoo Keeper at the Fort Worth Zoological Park before becoming Collections Manager at the California Academy of Sciences and later at the Natural History Museum at the University of Kansas, where he also served as Director of the Museum Studies Program until 2007. John is the recipient of the Superior Voluntary Service Award from AAM (2001), the Chancellor’s Award for Outstanding Mentoring of Graduate Students from the University of Kansas (2005), the Carolyn L. Rose Award for Outstanding Commitment to Natural History Collections and Management from the Society for the Preservation of Natural History Collections (2011), the Dudley-Wilkinson Award of Distinction from the Registrars Committee of the American Alliance of Museums (2016), and the Spiritus Award for Excellence in Service and Management of Herpetological and Ichthyological Collections from American Society of Ichthyologists and Herpetologists (2019). John has published more than 150 papers and several books on museum and natural history subjects, including Cuidado, Manejo y Conservacion de las Colecciones Biologicas (2005, with Yaneth Munoz-Saba), Fluid Preservation: A Comprehensive Reference (2014), Foundations of Museum Studies: Evolving Systems of Knowledge (2014, with Kiersten Latham), Herpetological Collecting and Collections Management (3rd edition, 2015), Museums: A History (2016), Things Great and Small: Collections Management Policies (2nd edition, 2017), MRM6: Museum Registration Methods (edited with Toni Kiser, 2020), Best Practices in the Preservation and Management of Fluid-Preserved Biological Collections (with Dirk Neumann, Julian Carter, and Oliver Crimmen, 2022), and the chapter on "Collections Management: History, Theory, and Practice" in The International Handbook of Museum Studies (2015). John currently is a writer and consultant for Museologica (an international museum consulting service), teaches museum studies for the Universidad Nacional de Colombia and Museum Study LLC; and volunteers for the Earth and Mineral Sciences Museum & Art Gallery at Penn State University.
