Hans-Dieter Sues is a German-born paleontologist who is Senior Scientist and Curator of Vertebrate Paleontology at the
National Museum of Natural HistoryThe National Museum of Natural History is a natural history museum administered by the Smithsonian Institution, located on the National Mall in Washington, D.C., United States. Admission is free and the museum is open 364 days a year....
of the
Smithsonian InstitutionThe Smithsonian Institution is an educational and research institute and associated museum complex, administered and funded by the government of the United States and by funds from its endowment, contributions, and profits from its retail operations, concessions, licensing activities, and magazines...
in Washington, DC. He received his education at Johannes Gutenberg-Universität Mainz (University of Mainz),
University of AlbertaThe University of Alberta is a public research university located in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. Founded in 1908 by Alexander Cameron Rutherford, the first premier of Alberta and Henry Marshall Tory, its first president, it is widely recognized as one of the best universities in Canada...
, and
Harvard UniversityHarvard University is a private Ivy League university located in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States, established in 1636 by the Massachusetts legislature. Harvard is the oldest institution of higher learning in the United States and the first corporation chartered in the country...
(Ph.D., 1984). Before assuming his present position, Sues worked at the
Royal Ontario MuseumThe Royal Ontario Museum is a museum of world culture and natural history in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. With its main entrance facing Bloor Street in Downtown Toronto, the museum is situated north of Queen's Park and east of Philosopher's Walk in the University of Toronto...
and the
University of TorontoThe University of Toronto is a public research university in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, situated on the grounds that surround Queen's Park. It was founded by royal charter in 1827 as King's College, the first institution of higher learning in Upper Canada...
and at the
Carnegie Museum of Natural HistoryCarnegie Museum of Natural History, located at 4400 Forbes Avenue in the Oakland neighborhood of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA, was founded by the Pittsburgh-based industrialist Andrew Carnegie in 1896...
in Pittsburgh. He is interested in the diversity, paleoecology, and evolutionary history of
MesozoicThe Mesozoic era is an interval of geological time from about 250 million years ago to about 65 million years ago. It is often referred to as the age of reptiles because reptiles, namely dinosaurs, were the dominant terrestrial and marine vertebrates of the time...
tetrapods, especially archosaurian reptiles and cynodont therapsids, and the history of biology and paleontology. Sues has discovered a number of new
dinosaurDinosaurs are a diverse group of animals of the clade and superorder Dinosauria. They were the dominant terrestrial vertebrates for over 160 million years, from the late Triassic period until the end of the Cretaceous , when the Cretaceous–Paleogene extinction event led to the extinction of...
s and other extinct terrestrial
vertebrateVertebrates are animals that are members of the subphylum Vertebrata . Vertebrates are the largest group of chordates, with currently about 58,000 species described. Vertebrates include the jawless fishes, bony fishes, sharks and rays, amphibians, reptiles, mammals, and birds...
s in Mesozoic continental strata around the world. He has authored or co-authored over 100 articles and book chapters on
vertebrate paleontologyVertebrate paleontology is a large subfield to paleontology seeking to discover the behavior, reproduction and appearance of extinct animals with vertebrae or a notochord, through the study of their fossilized remains...
and
paleoecologyPaleoecology uses data from fossils and subfossils to reconstruct the ecosystems of the past. It involves the study of fossil organisms and their associated remains, including their life cycle, living interactions, natural environment, and manner of death and burial to reconstruct the...
. Sues has edited
Evolution of Herbivory in Terrestrial Vertebrates (Cambridge Univ. Press, 2000) and co-edited
Terrestrial Ecosystems through Time (with A. K. Behrensmeyer et al.; Univ. of Chicago Press, 1992),
In the Shadow of the Dinosaurs: Early Mesozoic Tetrapods (with N. C. Fraser; Cambridge Univ. Press, 1994), and
Major Transitions in Vertebrate Evolution (with J. S. Anderson; Indiana Univ. Press, 2007). He is also active in promoting the value of natural history collections for addressing major questions in current science. Sues was elected a Fellow of the
Royal Society of CanadaThe Royal Society of Canada , may also operate under the more descriptive name RSC: The Academies of Arts, Humanities and Sciences of Canada , is the oldest association of scientists and scholars in Canada...
in 2003 and a Fellow of the
American Association for the Advancement of ScienceThe American Association for the Advancement of Science is an international non-profit organization with the stated goals of promoting cooperation among scientists, defending scientific freedom, encouraging scientific responsibility, and supporting scientific education and science outreach for the...
in 1998. The pachycephalosaur
HanssuesiaHanssuesia is a genus of pachycephalosaurid dinosaur from the late Cretaceous period. It lived in what is now Alberta and Montana.Hanssuesia based on material originally named Troodon sternbergi by Barnum Brown and Erich Maren Schlaikjer in 1943. Later, it was transferred to Stegoceras as S....
is named for him.