Top state museum scientist leaving Nature Research Center

More fallout from McCrory making many more state employees "at will" patronage positions.

RALEIGH, N.C. — The top scientist at the Nature Research Center is leaving her post three years after taking the helm of the science museum's new $56-million wing. The move comes four months after the museum's new director effectively demoted her.

Meg Lowman, a biologist and ecologist widely known as "Canopy Meg" for her research in forest treetops, is resigning as director of academic partnerships and global initiatives at the N.C. Museum of Natural Sciences to take a job at the California Academy of Sciences in San Francisco. Lowman will serve as the institution's chief of science and sustainability starting Jan. 6.

Reached by phone in New York Monday evening, Lowman said the new job takes her work with scientific research and outreach "to the next level" by overseeing more than a dozen science curators in a newly created Institute for Biodiversity Science and Sustainability. Part of the institute's mission is a focus on a "sustainable future," which ties in closely with Lowman's 30 years of conservation research.

"It's kind of just like this frosting on the cake," Lowman said. "We're going to be looking to make sure science is relevant to the challenges of the 21st century."

edit: Link - http://www.wral.com/top-state-museum-scientist-leaving-nature-research-center/13124590/

Sad. Enraging. Disgusting beyond words what this state is sliding into.