Miranda Lowe

CBE FLS FRSB
Occupation(s)Natural historian
Curator
Academic work
DisciplineNatural history
InstitutionsNatural History Museum

Miranda Constance Lowe CBE FLS FRSB is a British museum curator. She is principal curator of crustacea at the Natural History Museum, London and a founder member of Museum Detox.[1]

Career

She has particular expertise in peracarida and coral taxonomy, and she manages the museum's collections in crustacea and cnidaria.[1] She has published work on the museum's collection of 182 glass sea creatures made by Leopold and Rudolf Blaschka.

She is a committee member of NatSCA, the Natural Sciences Collections Association.[2]

In 2018 Lowe and Subhadra Das of the Grant Museum of Zoology and Comparative Anatomy co-authored "Nature Read in Black and White: decolonial approaches to interpreting natural history collections",[3] described by the Linnean Society's head of collections as "eye-opening".[4] They went on to be founding members of Museum Detox, an organisation bringing together BAME museum workers in the UK.[5][6]

In July 2020 Lowe was appointed as a Trustee of York Museums Trust.[7]

In September 2020 she appeared on BBC Radio 4's The Museum of Curiosity, when her hypothetical donation to this imaginary museum was a moon jellyfish.[8]

In December 2020 she explained about bias in the fossil record within the Royal Institution Christmas Lecture about Planet Earth given by Christopher Jackson.[9] Four months later she was elected Chair of the Board of Trustees overseeing the United Kingdom arts diversity charity Culture&.[10]

Selected publications

  • Miller, C. Giles; Lowe, Miranda (February 2008). "The Natural History Museum Blaschka collections". Historical Biology. 20 (1): 51–62. doi:10.1080/08912960701677531. S2CID 85173379.
  • Lowe, Miranda; Boulter, Carolyn J. (2015). "Darwin's Barnacles: Learning from collections". In Boulter, Carolyn J.; Reiss, Michael J.; Sanders, Dawn L. (eds.). Darwin-Inspired Learning. Springer. pp. 273–284. ISBN 978-94-6209-833-6. Retrieved 24 September 2020.
  • Sivell, Duncan; Beale, Joe; Reilly, Nicky; Lowe, Miranda; et al. (November 2019). "The wildlife garden at the Natural History Museum: Developments of the flora and fauna. Update 2018-2019 - Twenty-four years of species recording". The London Naturalist. 98: 248–258. Retrieved 24 September 2020.
  • Syperek, Pandora; Wade, Sarah; Lowe, Miranda; Sabin, Richard (27 May 2020). "Curating Ocean Ecology at the Natural History Museum: Miranda Lowe and Richard Sabin in conversation with Pandora Syperek and Sarah Wade". Science Museum Group Journal. 13 (13). doi:10.15180/201314.

Honours and awards

In November 2020 she was included in the BBC Radio 4 Woman's Hour Power list 2020.[11]

In 2021, Lowe and Subhadra Das were awarded the Society for the History of Natural History President's Award. The citation said that "their efforts have together sent a clarion call to museums and heritage organisations to acknowledge colonial histories and to take action."[12]

Lowe was appointed Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) in the 2022 Birthday Honours for services to science communication and diversity in natural history.[13]

References

  1. 1 2 "Miranda Lowe". www.nhm.ac.uk. Natural History Museum. Retrieved 23 September 2020.
  2. ↑ "Miranda Lowe". www.natsca.org. Natural Sciences Collections Association. Retrieved 23 September 2020.
  3. ↑ Das, S.; Lowe, M. (2018). "Nature Read in Black and White: decolonial approaches to interpreting natural historycollections" (PDF). Journal of Natural Science Collections. 6: 4–14. Retrieved 23 September 2020.
  4. ↑ Charmantier, Isabelle (11 June 2020). "Black Lives Matter in our Collections". The Linnean Society. Retrieved 23 September 2020.
  5. ↑ Imbler, Sabrina (14 October 2019). "In London, Natural History Museums Confront Their Colonial Histories". Atlas Obscura. Retrieved 23 September 2020.
  6. ↑ "About us". Museumdetox. Museum Detox. Retrieved 23 September 2020.
  7. ↑ "York Museums Trust appoint two new trustees". York Press. 13 July 2020.
  8. ↑ "Series 15, Episode 3". The Museum of Curiosity. BBC Radio 4. Retrieved 23 September 2020.
  9. ↑ "CHRISTMAS LECTURES 2020: Planet Earth: A user's guide". The Royal Institution. Retrieved 28 December 2020.
  10. ↑ "Two 'inspired appointments' to Culture& Board aim to strengthen museums sector ties". Museums + Heritage Advisor. 19 March 2021. Retrieved 2 June 2022.
  11. ↑ "Woman's Hour Power List 2020: The List". BBC Radio4. Retrieved 16 November 2020.
  12. ↑ "SHNH President's Award". Society for the History of Natural History. Retrieved 2 June 2022.
  13. ↑ "No. 63714". The London Gazette (Supplement). 1 June 2022. p. B10.
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