Robert "Mac" West
Principal
Mac West has been involved with informal education in a variety of museums for thirty years. In addition to his extensive teaching experience in the Biology Department of Adelphi University (NY) and the Department of Geophysical Sciences at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, he has chaired the Geology Department of the Milwaukee Public Museum (WI) and has directed two major science museums: The Carnegie Museum of Natural History (PA) and Cranbrook Institute of Science (MI).
He has been active as an AAM MAP site visitor, as an ASTC Full Member site visitor, as an AAM accreditation evaluator, and as a consultant to museums, scientific associations and funding agencies throughout the U.S., as well as in China, India and Nepal. His background as a university teacher, scientific researcher, and museum programmer and administrator equips him uniquely to work with various issues ranging from feasibility, evaluation and governance to finance and development to programs, exhibits and collections. He oversees the Traveling Exhibitions Database for ILE, and coordinates the twice-annual Traveling Exhibitions Roundtable at ASTC and AAM meetings.
Mac has a B.A. in Geology from Lawrence College, an S.M. in Geophysical Sciences and a Ph.D. in Evolutionary Biology from the University of Chicago, and did postdoctoral work at Princeton University. He received the Arnold Guyot Prize from the National Geographic Society in 1981 for his paleontologic research in the Canadian Arctic and was named Man of the Year in Science in Pittsburgh for 1986 in honor of his efforts on behalf of The Carnegie Museum of Natural History. Mac has published more than 130 papers and abstracts on paleontology, museum science and science education. He participated in Chamber of Commerce community leadership programs in Pittsburgh and Detroit. He has served on the Board of Directors of the Association of Systematics Collections, and the Association of Science/Technology Centers, and was Vice President of the Association of Science Museum Directors. He served as the U.S. natural history museum representative on the Indo-U.S. Subcommission on Education and Culture. He currently serves on the boards of the National Center for Science Education and the Visitor Studies Association. Mac is a charter member of The Museum Group.
He has been owner of ILE since its incorporation in late 1991. ILE publishes The Informal Learning Review and maintains the Traveling Exhibitions Database.