Why Palaeo Sommelièr?
For many years, I used the title Explorer-in-Residence until one day, I noticed that many National Geographic colleagues had adopted it. So, Palaeo Sommelièr was born.
A sommelier (/ˈsɒməljeɪ/ or /sʌməlˈjeɪ/ or /sɒˈmɛlijeɪ/; French pronunciation: [sɔməlje]), or wine steward, is a trained and knowledgeable wine professional, normally working in fine restaurants, who specializes in all aspects of wine service as well as wine and food pairing.
A sommelièr is a fossil steward — a trained and knowledgeable fossil professional, normally working in science communication with a specialization in palaeontology. As I live in British Columbia, and by law, everyone here who finds a fossil is a steward of the fossil, it is the perfect pairing.
