Zoey Whisler (pictured above at the Milepost 31 museum in Seattle) is an undergraduate in her fourth year at the University of Washington. Zoey is getting her bachelors degrees in Archaeological Sciences and Geology and does her research within the paleontology department.

Born and raised in Seattle, Zoey is the fourth generation of her family living in the Northwest, so local archaeology and geology have been a passion from a young age. Growing up she was encouraged by her parents to be involved in science and culture, a mixture of her parents interests rubbing off on her. In kindergarten, Zoey was introduced to archaeology by doing an archaeological dig of her backyard for her first science fair project, unfortunately the bones she found were not a new species to be published as she hoped but were instead chicken bones from a rather recent compost pile. When she entered college, Zoey had already been introduced to many fields of science through her schooling and family, but after taking some college courses she eventually found a love for archaeology, geology, and paleontology.

Currently Zoey does her research on prehistoric shrews from Western Montana that are 25 to 28 million years old and even had the opportunity to present her findings at the 2014 Geological Society of America Conference. Still, Zoey’s interests in Archaeology and Geology are diverse and she is excited to explore new aspects of the fields and have the opportunity to discuss them in the format of blogging.