Christopher P. Sloan

Christopher P. Sloan (born September 28, 1954) is a science communicator, art director, author, and avocational paleontologist. Sloan is a four-time award-winning author of children’s books written for the National Geographic Society. He teaches modern approaches to science art online for the Academy of Art University in San Francisco, and is chairman of the Lanzendorf Paleo-Art Committee of the Society of Vertebrate Paleontology, an advisory board member of Exposé, a juried annual of computer graphic art. He is an active participant in the Smithsonian Institution National Museum of Natural History’s Human Origins Program and the National Evolutionary Synthesis Center.^[1] Most of Sloan’s time is concerned with being President of Science Visualization, a science media company he started in 2010. The firm is based in the Washington, D.C^[2] metropolitan area..

Background

In the 1970s, Sloan studied zoology at Oregon State University, became a freelance graphic designer and scientific illustrator,^[3] and attended art and design classes in New York City at several prominent schools including, Pratt Institute, Parsons School of Design, and National Academy of Design. From 1981- 1989, Sloan was Art Director at the Financial Executives Institute and designed Financial Executive magazine. From 1989-1992, he held the same position at Changing Times magazine, which he later redesigned as Kiplinger’s Personal Finance Magazine.^[4]

In 1992, Sloan joined National Geographic Magazine as one of three art directors. In 1994, Sloan became the chief Art Director and served as the Senior Editor for archaeology and paleontology. In 2007 he left the Art Department to start a new department where he was Director of Mission Projects, a liaison role between the magazine and the National Geographic Society’s research grantees.^[5] While at National Geographic, Sloan wrote two feature articles, including a cover story, “The Origin of Childhood.^[6]”

In 1999, Sloan published a feature article called “Feathers for T. Rex?^[7]” for National Geographic Magazine, describing an Archaeoraptor fossil found in China as "a missing link between terrestrial dinosaurs and birds that could actually fly." It was discovered later that the fossil had been illegally exported from China and had been a forged composite fossil and not a new species.^[8]

After leaving National Geographic, Sloan co-authored, with Dr. Rick Potts, the exhibition companion book for the opening of the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History’s Koch Hall of Human Origins, "What Does It Mean to Be Human?"^[9]

In 2010, Sloan founded Science Visualization with anthropologist Dr. Christina Elson. The firm focuses on creating and promoting content related to science, environment, history, art and design through exhibitions, television, digital media, and books.^[2]

Fieldwork

Sloan has been to numerous field sites and has participated in excavations in Alberta, China, and Scotland. In 2004, while on a dig in western China, Sloan helped discover^[10] a new genus of prehistoric crocodile, which now bears the name Junggarsuchus sloani. In 2007, he led an editorial team on a 2,500-mile road-trip through Iran, which resulted in a National Geographic cover story on ancient Iran.^[11]

Selected awards and recognitions

In 2003, Sloan was selected to be a distinguished member of the EXPOSÉ Advisory Committee by the Computer Graphics Society.^[4] He is a four-time winner of the National Science Teacher Association and Children’s Book Council “Outstanding Science Trade Book” award (2012, 2006, 2005, 2002).

Selected publications (books)

Baby Mammoth Mummy: Frozen in Time: A Prehistoric Animal's Journey into the 21st Century (2011), ISBN 9781426308659 (Winner, 2012 National Science Teacher Association and Children’s Book Council “Outstanding Science Trade Book”)
What does it mean to be Human? (2010), written with Dr. Rick Potts, ISBN 9781426206061
Mummies: Dried, Tanned, Sealed, Drained, Frozen, Embalmed, Stuffed, Wrapped, and Smoked...and We're Dead Serious (2010), ISBN 9781426306952
Bizarre Dinosaurs: Some Very Strange Creatures and Why We Think They Got That Way (2008), written with Drs. James Clark and Cathy Forster, ISBN 9781426303302
How Dinosaurs Took Flight: The Fossils, the Science, What We Think We Know, and Mysteries Yet Unsolved (2005), written with Dr. Xu Xing, ISBN 9780792272984 (Winner, 2006 National Science Teacher Association and Children’s Book Council “Outstanding Science Trade Book”)
The Human Story: Our Evolution from Prehistoric Ancestors to Today (2004), written with Drs. Meave and Louise Leakey, ISBN 9780792263258 (Winner, 2005 National Science Teacher Association and Children’s Book Council “Outstanding Science Trade Book”)
Bury The Dead: Tombs, Corpses, Mummies, Skeletons & Ritual (2002), written with Dr. Bruno Frolich, ISBN 9780439555852
SuperCroc and the Origin of Crocodiles (2002), written with Dr. Paul Sereno, ISBN 9780792266914 (Winner, 2003 National Science Teacher Association and Children’s Book Council “Outstanding Science Trade Book”)
Feathered Dinosaurs (2001), written with Dr. Phillip Currie, ISBN 9780439262828

References