EXPLORER PROFILE Matt Zweifel, who grew up in New Matt sometimes uses a kayak to access remote archaeological sites. Jersey, was surrounded by science and scientists from the first. His dad was the Curator of Herpetology (the study of reptiles and amphibians) at New York's renowned American Museum of Natural History, and his mom was a scientific illustrator. Thanks to the requirements of his father's profession, Matt and his family spent lots of vacation time at research stations and on specimen-collecting trips all over the United States. Matt met dozens of prominent scientists along the way, and as he puts it, "just being around so many great minds kept me interested in science since Day One.” Matt remembers his childhood mealtimes as being filled with stimulating discussions of so many different scientific topics—how moths can hear bats, the specialization of dinosaur species, experimental deep-ocean living quarters—that an awed young dinner guest once leaned over and whispered to him, "Wow, there's a lot of brain power around this table!” When Matt was in college in Corvallis, Oregon, he majored in anthropology, mainly because, to him, "those classes were the most fun.” But he studied many other sciences as well, because, true to his upbringing, he found science in general to be fascinating. Matt never really considered archaeology as a career until, in his senior year, he took an archaeology field class. At that point, he was hooked. A long way from New Jersey: Matt worked out of this field camp at an old cowboy line cabin on the Kaiparowits Plateau. He spent the next several years working various archaeology jobs over much of the northwestern United States. Eventually, Matt enrolled in graduate school for archaeology at Washington State University in Pullman. He decided he would pursue a master's degree, and then look for an opportunity as an archaeologist with the Federal government, since he pictured the public lands as "millions of acres, with millions of archaeological sites,” many of which were in need of protection. (And, as it turns out, he was right.) After grad school and a stint as an archaeologist with the Kootenai National Forest in Montana, Matt worked briefly as the Tribal Archaeologist for the Kaibab Band of Southern Paiute Indians near Fredonia, Arizona, before landing seasonal assignments and, finally, his current position with BLM. Matt's found archaeology to be the right career for him for several reasons. As he says, "I like working outdoors and in remote areas, and I like looking for places, long abandoned, where other people used to live and work. I like looking at a landscape and thinking backwards: What did this area look like when this archaeological site was occupied? Was there the same kind of vegetation, and what were the weather patterns like? How did these people live, and what did they do? What can I learn by looking at this site?” Matt stresses the importance of not touching, damaging, or removing artifacts or archaeological sites. After all, how can he answer his many questions if his most important clues are missing or damaged? Matt says he likes the field of archaeology in and of itself because, in order to be a good archaeologist, you have to have a working knowledge of so many other sciences. Geology, geomorphology, skeletal anatomy, animal behavior, botany, geography, sedimentology, paleoclimatology, ethnobotany, architecture . . . the list could be very long, and all archaeologists must draw from these and other sciences at one time or another in their careers. When Matt was first considering different career paths, he felt that many of the options open to him were too restrictive to suit his diverse interests. "In archaeology, I've found something that lets me do the kind of job I like,” he says, "and lets me work with a wide variety of sciences and other resource specialists. GSENM is a great place to work, not just because of its fantastic archaeological resources, but also because the Monument is research-oriented and there are so many good scientists with whom I get to work.” Perhaps most important to Matt, though, is the fact that his job keeps him thinking all the time, developing questions and looking for answers.