Program Directors
Laurie Fink - Program Director, Human Biology
Laurie heads up our health and human body projects, including Tissues of Life; Cell Lab (final phase); Disease Detectives; Arthrobactor wet lab activity; Brighter Futures; Public Deliberation about the Science of Early Childhood Development; and Human Spark with TPT and WNET.
Laurie has a Bachelor's degree in Chemistry and a PhD in Pharmacology, both from the University of Minnesota. Before coming on board, she was a research scientist at start-up biotech company; worked in quality control and assurance in the pharmaceutical industry; and was a medical research assistant at the University of Minnesota. There Laurie identified a novel gene that plays a role in tumor formation.
Laurie enjoys playing soccer, which she claims makes her "a true soccer MOM. But I most enjoy adventures with my family!"
Robert Garfinkle - Program Director, Special Projects
Robert leads the Science Museum's Science and Social Change Program, collaborating with Minnesota communities to explore the intersection of science and social issues. Robert led the project team that created RACE: Are We So Different?, a landmark exhibition about race, racism, and human variation that opened at the Science Museum of Minnesota in January 2007. RACE, a collaboration with the American Anthropological Association, was awarded the American Association of Museum's annual Excellence in Exhibition Award in 2008.
Previously, Robert led the development of three national traveling exhibitions: Raise the Roof (opened in 1998), Playing With Time (2002), and Invention at Play (2002), a collaboration with the Smithsonian's Lemelson Center for the Study of Invention and Innovation which also won the AAM award.
Robert has consulted with other museums on master planning, exhibit development and design, project leadership and conceptual planning. He has a master's degree in educational technology from Indiana University, but is most proud of still playing basketball three days a week against kids half his age.
Patrick Hamilton - Director, Environmental Sciences and Earth-System Science
In his quarter-century with the Science Museum, Pat has developed numerous environmental exhibits and projects. These include Water: H2O = Life, a 7,000 square-foot traveling exhibit; Big Back Yard, the museum's 1.75-acre outdoor science park; and Science House, the solar-powered, zero-emissions building in the Big Back Yard that serves as the headquarters for the museum's Teacher Resource Center. His other projects include the Mississippi River Web 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.
Pat is currently heading up the Future Earth Initiative, an NSF-supported set of exhibits and programs that explores the implications of human impact on the Earth. He is also a PI with the National Center for Earth-Surface Dynamics and a fellow of the University of Minnesota's Institute of the Environment.
Pat earned an MA in Geography from the University of Minnesota in 1982.
Pat likes to show off his green thumb. "My wife and I grow organic plums in the front yard of our St. Paul home," he says. "These succulent, ruby-colored gems have won us four blue ribbons at the Minnesota State Fair—the great Minnesota get together."
Joanne Jones-Rizzi - Program Director, Peoples and Cultures
Joanne began her career as an exhibit 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 exhibit, as well as TV & Me; Arthur's World; and Boston Black: A City Connects.
Joanne joined the Science Museum for the award-winning exhibit RACE: Are We So Different? as a program and exhibit developer. She collaborated with local community groups to develop programs that provided relevance and extended the exhibit experience.
Joanne next worked with the University of Minnesota's center for Holocaust and Genocide Studies to bring Deadly Medicine: Creating the Master Race to the Twin Cities. Additional collaborations used theater and visual arts to explore and extend exhibit themes to audiences at the Museum and the University.
An active contributor to the museum field, Joanne has spoken to the American Association of Museums, the Association of Children's Museums, and other professional and educational groups. She is co-author of the book Opening the Museum, and has written numerous articles exploring ideas related to identity, race, and community.
Joanne cites Mining the Museum as her favorite exhibit. "I saw this exhibit in Baltimore in 1992 and I still think about it: the juxtaposition of objects; the reactions of visitors; the combining oil paintings, audio and lighting to communicate being 'the other.' The use of objects to communicate slavery, racism and what they did to the people involved was profound. The collaborative aspect to the project also resonated with me. I am always looking for new models for bringing ideas to the public. "Joanne has also been a collector and advocate for contemporary ceramic art for over 30 years. She is past Board Chair of The Northern Clay Center.
J. Shipley Newlin - Program Director, Physical Sciences and Technology
J. 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). At the Science Museum, J was the project director for the development of the Experiment Gallery and for the series of eleven acclaimed "Experiment Benches" funded by the National Science Foundation's Informal Science Education program in the early 90s.
J's other past and current Science Museum projects include Bionics and Transplants; Atmospheric Explorations; Cell Lab; Playing With Time traveling exhibition; Handling Calculus; Wild Music traveling exhibition; and Fluid Power and other engineering projects currently under development.
J holds a degree in Liberal Arts and Sciences from St. John's College, Annapolis, MD. He has taken additional courses in chemistry, mathematics, and physics from Drexel University and the University of Minnesota.
When asked to name a favorite museum, J can't pick just one. "I love several museums, each because they give visitors a deep and enriching experience. Among them, the Deutches Museum in Munich, which has wonderful exhibits on industry and technology. I particularly love the exhibit of harpsichords and pianos in which a curator plays music written for each instrument and talks about the technology that makes the music sound as it does. The Art Institute in Chicago because its permanent collections and special exhibits never fail to give me new insights into human culture. The Exploratorium in San Francisco because the exhibits there illuminate the way the natural world works. And Science North for its appropriate scale and the sense it can give to visitors that they are themselves science investigators."