Suzanne Peurach

Suzy is currently stationed within the Bird Banding Lab where her focus is on matching encounter reports with birds sporting auxillary markers to banding records and related correspondence between reports and banders; serving on the permit authorization review committee; and overseeing nomenclatural updates to the BBL database.  Prior to that, Suzy spent the past 22 years as a museum specialist and the past 8 years as the Collections Manager of North American Mammals for the now defunct Biological Survey Unit stationed within the Smithsonian Institution's National Museum of Natural History (NMNH).  Her primary duties were preparation and conservation of mammal voucher specimens housed within the  NMNH mammal collections as well as assisting visiting researchers and overseeing loans of specimens for use across the globe. She is also a seasoned field mammalogist, assisting with mammal surveys from North, Central, and South America, as well as most recently in Djibouti, Africa.  She also provided identifications of mammals involved in aircraft strikes for the Smithsonian Insititution's Feather Identification Lab for over 20 years, comparing partial and/or microscopic mammal remains (mostly bats) with the vast and historic collections housed within NMNH.  These experiences have helped Suzy to develop a great appreciation for biological diversity as well as an understanding of the importance of data integrity and proper nomenclature, a valuable skillset for the BBL.