Preparator and Lab Manager -
Kayleigh A. Johnson
Kayleigh A. Johnson is the lab manager and preparator of the Museum and Geology at South Dakota Mines. Here, she maintains the lab, manages volunteers, and prepares fossils for research and display.
She has a long history with Mines. She began her college career here in 2013 and later received her B.S. in Geology in 2017. A year and a half later she received her M.S. in Paleontology in 2018 with the help of Mines’ Accelerated Master’s Program. She
also served as the treasurer and later president of the Tech Paleontology Club and was a founding member and secretary of the geological honor society Sigma Gamma Epsilon – Theta Nu chapter.
She has also worked at Ashfall Fossil Beds State Historical Park in Royal, Nebraska as an intern (2015) and at Badlands National Park in Interior, South Dakota as a fossil preparator (2017).
She is an active member in the Association of Materials and Methods in Paleontology (AMMP) where she serves on the Communication Committee. She is also a member of the Geological Society of America (GSA) and the American Institute of Professional Geologists
(AIPG).
Kayleigh has extensive research experience examining dental microwear and how fossil preparation methods affect it. She also has experience with fossil assemblages such as the Cretaceous Dakoticancer assemblage and molluscan assemblages from the
Miocene to the Pleistocene.