Rate My Professor Kenneth Lacovara

Kenneth Lacovara is a prominent paleontologist in the field of Geoscience, who served as Associate Professor in the Department of Biodiversity, Earth and Environmental Science in Drexel University's College of Arts and Sciences. He earned his Ph.D. in Geology from the University of Delaware in 1998 and holds a Master's degree in Physical Geography from the University of Maryland. Transitioning to Rowan University in 2015, he became Founding Dean of the School of Earth & Environment, Professor of Paleontology and Geology in the Department of Geology, and Founding Executive Director of the Jean & Ric Edelman Fossil Park. Lacovara's career encompasses extensive fieldwork in remote global locations, including Patagonia, Egypt's Bahariya Oasis, the Gobi Desert, and western China.

Lacovara's research specializations center on vertebrate paleontology, particularly sauropod dinosaurs and the Cretaceous-Paleogene mass extinction event that eradicated dinosaurs 66 million years ago. He integrates cutting-edge technologies such as 3D imaging, 3D printing, robotics, and medical modeling to reconstruct and analyze fossils, revolutionizing perspectives on titanosaurs as agile, hyper-efficient giants rather than lumbering behemoths. Key discoveries include the super-massive Dreadnoughtus schrani, weighing 65 tons—more than seven T. rex—detailed in Scientific Reports (2014); Paralititan stromeri, the first new dinosaur from Egypt in nearly a century, published in Science (2001); Gansus yumenensis, a pivotal early bird linking to modern avians, in Science (2006); and Suzhousaurus, a unique plant-eater akin to a ground sloth. His book Why Dinosaurs Matter (Simon & Schuster, 2017) earned the Nautilus Silver Book Award (2018) and became an Amazon best-seller. Awards include the Explorers Club Medal (2019), election as Explorers Club Fellow, and recognition in Discover Magazine's Top 100 Science Stories (2001, 2012, 2014). Lacovara's TED talk 'Hunting for dinosaurs showed me our place in the universe' has exceeded 1.5 million views, and he contributes to public science through lectures, documentaries, and citizen science initiatives at the Edelman Fossil Park, fostering STEM engagement and illuminating extinction dynamics relevant to contemporary biodiversity crises.