Program Directors
Laurie Fink - Director of Human Biology
Laurie Fink is the Director for Human Biology at the Science Museum of Minnesota. She has been with the museum since January 2001. Starting a liaison between the museum and the University of Minnesota Academic Health Center for the NIH/NCRR Science Education Partnership Award (SEPA) Tissues of Life Project, Laurie then became the PI for the Tissues Project and is currently the PI on a SEPA project, Emerging Infectious Diseases and NSF project, Investigations in Cell Biology. Laurie received her Ph.D. from the University of Minnesota in Pharmacology where she identified and characterized a novel gene that plays a role in tumor formation and has worked at various biotech and pharmaceutical companies.
Robert Garfinkle - Program Director, Special Projects
Mr. Garfinkle started with the Science Museum of Minnesota in 1992 as an exhibit developer and evaluation specialist for a variety of projects. In 1996 he began leading large-scale traveling exhibit projects, including Raise the Roof (opened in 1998) and Playing With Time (2002). In collaboration with the Lemelson Center for the Study of Invention and Innovation at the Smithsonian's National Museum of American History, Mr. Garfinkle led the project team for the AAM-award winning exhibit Invention at Play (2002). He has consulted with other institutions on project management practices, project leadership, and conceptual planning. He currently is leading the Science Museum of Minnesota team developing a major national traveling exhibit about race and human variation in collaboration with the American Anthropological Association, due to open in early 2007.
Patrick Hamilton - Director, Environmental Sciences and Earth System Sciences
Patrick Hamilton is the Science Museum of Minnesota's Director of Environmental Sciences and Earth-system Science and is a PI with the National Center for Earth-surface Dynamics. His current project is the Future Earth Initiative—a four-year project that will produce between the Museum and its six research center partners a collaborative web site and Internet kiosks and a new 3,500 square-foot exhibition at the Museum about how humans are now the driving agent of change on Earth. Patrick's most recent project was the development in partnership with the American Museum of Natural History of Water—a 7,000 square-foot national and international traveling exhibition. Prior to Water, Patrick led the creation of the Museum's outdoor science park—the 1.75-acre Big Back Yard. Patrick has developed numerous environmental exhibits and projects during his 24 years with the Museum, including Science House, the Mississippi RiverWeb Museum Consortium, the Mississippi River Gallery, Watershed Science, The Three Rivers Initiative, Wind Power, Green Street, the Environmental Exhibits Collaborative, H2O Minnesota, and the River Eye Boat Program. Patrick has a M.A. degree in geography from the University of Minnesota.
Joanne Jones-Rizzi - Program Director, Peoples and Cultures
Joanne began her career as an exhibition developer and cultural program leader at the Boston Children's Museum in 1985. During her 20-year tenure she was the lead concept and content developer for the internationally acclaimed Kid's Bridge exhibition, as well as TV & Me, Arthur's World and Boston Black. As Director of Cultural Programs and Community Programs and Partnerships, Joanne led new exhibition and program initiatives across cultural areas within the museum, in collaboration with cultural communities in the Boston area, and institution-wide cultural initiatives. Joanne joined the Science Museum staff in 2005 for the Race: Are We So Different? exhibit as a program and exhibit developer where she developed a comprehensive program series in collaboration with local community groups to extend the exhibit experience and to provide relevancy to local constituent groups.
Joanne has provided consultation to numerous Children's Museums, Art Museums, and Science and Technology Centers including the Tech Museum of Innovation, Connecticut Historical Society, The Jewish Museum, and Chicago Children's Museum. An active contributor to the museum field, she has made presentations to the American Association of Museums, the Association of Children's Museums, the Aspen Design Conference, the Harvard Museum Education Program, the Tufts University Museum Education Program, New England Museum Association, ASTC: Youth Alive, Massachusetts Historical Society, the Smithsonian Institution and the Ford Foundation. Joanne is co-author of Opening the Museum and has written numerous articles exploring ideas related to identity, race, and community.
J. Shipley Newlin - Director, Physical Sciences and Technology
Director of Physical Sciences and Technology, and the museum's acclaimed Experiment Gallery, J. Newlin has over 30 years experience in museum education and exhibit development. His career has included tenures at the Franklin Institute in Philadelphia (1973-1983) and the New York Hall of Science (1984-1986). He has been at the Science Museum of Minnesota since 1987. Newlin was the project director for the development of the Experiment Gallery and for the series of eleven "Experiment Benches" funded by the National Science Foundation's Informal Science Education program in the early 90s. He has led the development of a series of interactive weather exhibits and collaborated with meteorologists at Augsburg College to develop five computer models of weather phenomena. He was PI for the NSF-funded traveling exhibition Playing With Time and the Handling Calculus exhibits in the Experiment Gallery. Newlin's current projects include serving as PI for the development of a large traveling exhibition called Wild Music and the development of experimental exhibits about contemporary light technologies.