Miranda Constance Lowe is a British museum curator. She is principal curator of

crustacea Crustaceans (from Latin meaning: "those with shells" or "crusted ones") are invertebrate animals that constitute one group of arthropods that are traditionally a part of the subphylum Crustacea (), a large, diverse group of mainly aquatic arthrop ...

at the

Natural History Museum, London The Natural History Museum in London is a museum that exhibits a vast range of specimens from various segments of natural history. It is one of three major museums on Exhibition Road in South Kensington, the others being the Science Museum (Lo ...

and a founder member of Museum Detox.

Career

She has particular expertise in

peracarida The superorder Peracarida is a large group of malacostracan crustaceans, having members in marine, freshwater, and terrestrial habitats. They are chiefly defined by the presence of a brood pouch, or ''marsupium'', formed from thin flattened pla ...

and

coral Corals are colonial marine invertebrates within the subphylum Anthozoa of the phylum Cnidaria. They typically form compact Colony (biology), colonies of many identical individual polyp (zoology), polyps. Coral species include the important Coral ...

taxonomy, and she manages the museum's collections in crustacea and

cnidaria Cnidaria ( ) is a phylum under kingdom Animalia containing over 11,000 species of aquatic invertebrates found both in fresh water, freshwater and marine environments (predominantly the latter), including jellyfish, hydroid (zoology), hydroids, ...

. She has published work on the museum's collection of 182

glass sea creatures The glass sea creatures (alternately called the Blaschka sea creatures, glass marine invertebrates, Blaschka invertebrate models, and Blaschka glass invertebrates) are works of glass artists Leopold and Rudolf Blaschka. The artistic predecessors ...

made by

Leopold and Rudolf Blaschka Leopold Blaschka (27 May 1822 – 3 July 1895) and his son Rudolf Blaschka (17 June 1857 – 1 May 1939) were glass artists from Dresden, Germany. They were known for their production of biological and botanical models, including glass sea crea ...

. She is a committee member of NatSCA, the

Natural Sciences Collections Association The Natural Sciences Collections Association (NatSCA) is a United Kingdom based membership organisation and charitable organization (No.1098156) run by volunteers from the membership. NatSCA's mission is "to promote and support natural science c ...

. In 2018 Lowe and Subhadra Das of the

Grant Museum of Zoology and Comparative Anatomy The Grant Museum of Zoology and Comparative Anatomy is a natural history museum that is part of University College London in London, England. It was established by Robert Edmond Grant in 1828 as a teaching collection of zoological specimens and ...

co-authored "Nature Read in Black and White: decolonial approaches to interpreting natural history collections", described by the

Linnean Society The Linnean Society of London is a learned society dedicated to the study and dissemination of information concerning natural history, evolution, and taxonomy. It possesses several important biological specimen, manuscript and literature collec ...

's head of collections as "eye-opening". They went on to be founding members of Museum Detox, an organisation bringing together

BAME A number of different systems of classification of ethnicity in the United Kingdom exist. These schemata have been the subject of debate, including about the nature of ethnicity, how or whether it can be categorised, and the relationship betwe ...

museum workers in the UK. In July 2020 Lowe was appointed as a Trustee of

York Museums Trust York Museums Trust (YMT) is the charity responsible for operating some key museums and galleries in York, England. The trust was founded in 2002 to run York's museums on behalf of the City of York Council. It has seen an increase in annual fo ...

. In September 2020 she appeared on

BBC Radio 4 BBC Radio 4 is a British national radio station owned and operated by the BBC. The station replaced the BBC Home Service on 30 September 1967 and broadcasts a wide variety of spoken-word programmes from the BBC's headquarters at Broadcasti ...

's ''

The Museum of Curiosity ''The Museum of Curiosity'' is a comedy talk show on BBC Radio 4 that was first broadcast on 20 February 2008. It is hosted by John Lloyd (producer), John Lloyd (Professor of Ignorance at the University of Buckingham, and later at Solent Unive ...

'', when her hypothetical donation to this imaginary museum was a

moon jellyfish ''Aurelia aurita'' (also called the common jellyfish, moon jellyfish, moon jelly or saucer jelly) is a species of the family Ulmaridae. All species in the genus are very similar, and it is difficult to identify '' Aurelia'' medusae without gene ...

. In December 2020 she explained about bias in the fossil record within the

Royal Institution Christmas Lecture The Royal Institution Christmas Lectures are a series of lectures on a single topic each, which have been held at the Royal Institution in London each year since 1825. The lectures present scientific subjects to a general audience, including you ...

about Planet Earth given by Christopher Jackson. Four months later she was elected Chair of the Board of Trustees overseeing the United Kingdom arts diversity charity Culture&.

Selected publications

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Honours and awards

In November 2020 she was included in the

Woman's Hour ''Woman's Hour'' is a radio magazine programme broadcast in the United Kingdom on the BBC Light Programme, BBC Radio 2, and later BBC Radio 4. It has been on the air since 1946. History The first BBC programme for women was the programme cal ...

Power list 2020. In 2021, Lowe and Subhadra Das were awarded the

Society for the History of Natural History A society () is a group of individuals involved in persistent social interaction or a large social group sharing the same spatial or social territory, typically subject to the same political authority and dominant cultural expectations. Soc ...

President's Award. The citation said that "their efforts have together sent a clarion call to museums and heritage organisations to acknowledge colonial histories and to take action." Lowe was appointed

Commander of the Order of the British Empire The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is a British order of chivalry, rewarding valuable service in a wide range of useful activities. It comprises five classes of awards across both civil and military divisions, the most senior two o ...

(CBE) in the

2022 Birthday Honours The 2022 Queen's Birthday Honours are appointments by some of the 15 Commonwealth realms of Queen Elizabeth II to Orders and decorations of the Commonwealth realms, various orders and honours to reward and highlight good works by citizens of those ...

for services to science communication and diversity in natural history.

References

External links

Ep7: Decolonising natural history with Miranda Lowe (In Pursuit of Plants)
{{DEFAULTSORT:Lowe, Miranda Year of birth missing (living people) Living people British women curators Employees of the Natural History Museum, London 21st-century British zoologists Fellows of the Linnean Society of London Fellows of the Royal Society of Biology Trustees of York Museums Trust Commanders of the Order of the British Empire