Trina Roberts, a biologist who has often used museum collections to aid her research, has been named director of the University of Iowa Pentacrest Museums, which include the UI Museum of Natural History and the Old Capitol Museum, after spending most of the year as the interim leader.

Roberts joined the university in 2011 as associate director of the Museum of Natural History and an adjunct instructor in the museum studies certificate program. Previously, she worked as a postdoctoral fellow at the National Evolutionary Synthesis Center in Durham, North Carolina, and the University of Alaska Museum in Fairbanks, Alaska, where she studied effects of geography on the evolution of small mammals.

Roberts earned an A.B. from Harvard and a Ph.D. from the University of Chicago.

“I’m really looking forward to building on the success the museums have had under their previous leaders,” Roberts says. “We have a great following already on campus and in the community, and we are creating even more meaningful partnerships at the UI and with other institutions through our education, exhibits, and collections.”

The museums are part of the Office of the Vice President for Research and Economic Development, which provides resources and support to researchers and scholars at the University of Iowa and to businesses across Iowa with the goal of forging new frontiers of discovery and innovation and promoting a culture of creativity that benefits the campus, the state, and the world.