Bushra Hussaini
Bushra Hussaini
Bushra Muzaffar Hussaini
Fossil collections manager
Bushra manages a collection of 5.2 million invertebrate fossils at the American Museum of Natural History in New York City. She takes care of the specimens and works to make them accessible to researchers, students, and museum scientists.
Bushra’s love for nature was inspired by the beautiful mountains of northern Pakistan. She overcame deep biases against women in the 1970s, earning a degree in geology from the University of Karachi. In 1979, Bushra began working at the Royal Dutch Shell Company. She was the second professional woman geologist to ever work in Pakistan.
In 1985, Bushra gained a position at Columbia University’s Oceanography Department, mapping bathymetry data received from their research vessel R.V. Conrad. She then taught at Queens College while earning her master’s degree. In 1997, she began her current job at the American Museum of Natural History. She has digitized millions of specimens, making them available online to scientists across the world.
Please share any positive experience you’ve had with mentors or role models during your career:
“I met Patricia Kelley at one of the Geological Society of America’s annual meetings several years ago, and she has been an incredible source of encouragement, support, and inspiration over the years. Other young women paleontologists who I admire immensely are Susan Butts at Yale, Jessica Cundiff at Harvard, Talia Karim at University of Colorado, Boulder, and Lindsay Walker at Los Angeles County Natural History Museum, who are doing incredible work at their institutions but are also always willing and available to help and offer advice when needed.”
Collections datasets by Bushra Hussaini
iDigBio: AMNH Invertebrate Paleontology Collection. Contacts: B. Hussaini, J. McCaffrey, L. Russell. Link
Hussaini, B. 2017. AMNH Invertebrate Paleontology Collection. Version 1.10. American Museum of Natural History. Occurrence dataset (on GBIF). Link
Selected abstracts by Bushra Hussaini
Barnhill, K.A., H. Towbin, M. Hopkins, E. Thomas, R. O’Leary, N.H. Landman, and B.M. Hussaini. 2016. 3D imaging of Foraminifera: Analysis of growth. Geological Society of America Abstracts with Programs 48(7). Link
Hernandez, A.V., R.A. Bozer, M.C. Dettman, K. Drummer, S.E. Rubin, E.E. Vargas-Parra, R. O’Leary, N.H. Landman, M. Hopkins, B.M. Hussaini. 2017. Curation of the Royal H. Maps Invertebrate Paleontology Collection at the American Museum of Natural History: Strategies for digitization and outreach. Geological Society of America Abstracts with Programs 49(6). Link
Rosensaft, M., N.H. Landman, B.M. Hussaini, R. O’Leary, S. Ketelsen, and A. Rashkova. 2018. Georeferencing Cretaceous Mollusca of the Western Interior Seaway in a GIS framework. Geological Society of America Abstracts with Programs 50(6). Link
Rosensaft, M., N.H. Landman, B.M. Hussaini, R. O’Leary, S. Ketelsen, and A. Rashkova. 2019. Georeferencing Cretaceous Mollusca of the Western Interior Seaway in a GIS framework: Update. Geological Society of America Abstracts with Programs 51(5). Link
Further reading
Lalwani, M. 2016. A rare fossil makes an appearance at the Natural History Museum. Engaget, 8 May 2018. Link
Microfossils Project. 2015. Week 8: Then and now, final post. 19 August 2015. Link