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Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History

Martin Buzas

Curator of Benthic Foraminifera (Emeritus)

It is with profound sadness that we share the news of the death of Martin A. Buzas, Curator of Foraminifera in the Department of Paleobiology. Marty was born in 1934 in Bridgeport, Connecticut, received his B.S. from University of Connecticut, his M.S. from Brown, and his Ph.D. from Yale University in 1963. He arrived at NMNH that same year and occupied his office in the northeast corner of the first floor of the East Wing for the next 59.

Throughout his career as Curator, then Senior Scientist, then Curator Emeritus, Marty used “big data,” much of it generated by his own observations, along with rigorous statistical techniques, to understand the ecological structure of benthic foraminiferal communities and species distributions in space and time. He used experiments, long-term surveys, and fossils to study forams from the salt marshes to the deep-sea, from scales of millimeters to thousands of kilometers, and over time periods from seasons to tens of millions of years. He showed how the same quantitative techniques could be applied to other groups of organisms not blessed with such ubiquitous fossils and large sample sizes.

His work, including his book Surveying Natural Populations (written with Lee Ann Hayek), has been highly influential in both paleontology and biology. Marty’s many accomplishments, and his role as one of the first to bring quantitative methods to paleontology, were recognized by his peers with the presentations of the Brady Medal of the Micropalaeontological Society (2016), the Paleontological Society Medal (2004), and the Joseph A. Cushman Award for excellence in foraminiferal research (2004).

Although Marty devoted himself to research, he also played an active role in shaping NMNH culture. He was one of the group of young curators in the 1960s who advocated powerfully for academic freedom and independent basic research at the Smithsonian – arguments that found a receptive target in Secretary S. Dillon Ripley. Marty and others founded the NMNH Senate of Scientists to uphold the importance of these ideals, and Marty remained a strong and sometimes sharp-tongued defender of freedom of research throughout his time as Paleobiology’s Chair (1977-1982) as well as later in his career. Marty influenced the wider field not only through his research but also through teaching and mentoring.

Marty hosted a regular lunch around a table in his lab for decades, the conversation sprinkled with the dry witticisms and wisdom of this brilliant but unpretentious ‘regular guy’ from Bridgeport. Marty’s career advice to his colleagues was this: “Seize a new space and weld seemingly disparate disciplines together…This approach…runs a higher risk of failure, but the thrills it provides are well worth the risk. Should I search carefully for collaborators, paying attention as to how their expertise would benefit my research? No, interesting colleagues with fascinating ideas surround you at this very moment." Marty, and his confidence in his colleagues, will be greatly missed.

Department / Division
Paleobiology
Education
  • Ph.D. Yale University, 1963
  • M.S. Brown University, 1960 
  • B.A. University of Connecticut, 1958
Research Interests

Quantitative understanding of the distribution of organisms in small and large amounts of space and time. Benthic Foraminifera. Statistics.

Publications
Journal Article
Book
Book Chapter
  • Culver, Stephen J. and Buzas, Martin A. 2000. "Response of shallow water foraminiferal palaeoccommunities to global and regional environmental change." In Biotic response to global change. Culver, Stephen J. and Rawson, Peter F., editors. 122–134. Cambridge: Cambridge Univesity Press.
  • Culver, Stephen J. and Buzas, Martin A. 1999. "Biogeography of Neritic benthic foraminifera." In Modern Foraminifera. Sen Gupta, Barun K., editor. 93–102. Dordrecht, The Netherlands: Kluwer Academic Publishers.
  • Culver, Stephen J. and Buzas, Martin A. 1998. "Patterns of occurrence of benthic foraminifera in time and space." In The adequacy of the fossil record. Donovan, Stephen K. and Paul, Christopher R. C., editors. 207–226. New York: John Wiley & Sons.
  • Hayek, Lee-Ann C. and Buzas, Martin A. 1998. "SHE analysis: an integrated approach to the analysis of forest biodiversity." In Forest biodiversity research, monitoring and modeling. Dallmeier, Francisco and Comiskey, J. A., editors. 311–321. Paris ; NY: UNESCO ; Parthenon Publishing Group. In Man and the biosphere series (no. 20).
  • Buzas, Martin A. 1987. "Smaller Foraminifera." In Fossil Invertebrates. Boardman, Richard S., Cheetham, Alan H., and Rowell, Albert J., editors. 72–81. Palo Alto: Blackwell Scientific Publications.
  • Buzas, Martin A. 1987. "Kingdom Protista." In Fossil invertebrates. Boardman, Richard S., Cheetham, Alan H., and Rowell, Albert J., editors. 67–72. Palo Alto: Blackwell Scientific Publications.
  • Buzas, Martin A. and Behrensmeyer, Anna K. 1987. "Ecology-Paleoecology." In Fossil Invertebrates. Boardman, Richard S., Cheetham, Alan H., and Rowell, Albert J., editors. 19–28. Oxford: Blackwell Scientific Publications.
  • Buzas, Martin A. and Culver, Stephen J. 1982. "Biogeography of modern benthic foraminifera." In Foraminifera notes for a short course. Buzas, Martin A., Sen Gupta, B. K., and Broadhead, T. W., editors. 90–106. Knoxville: University of Tennessee. In Studies in geology.
  • Culver, Stephen J. and Buzas, Martin A. 1981. "Distribution of selected Recent benthic foraminifera genera in the Western North Atlantifc." In Microfossils from recent and fossil shelf seas. Neale, John W. and Brasier, M. D., editors. 336–349. Chichester: Ellis Horwood.
  • Buzas, Martin A. 1979. "Quantitative biofacies analysis." In Foraminiferal ecology and paleoecology. Lipps, Jere H., Berger, W. H., Buzas, Martin A., Douglas, R. G., and Ross, C. A., editors. 11–20. Houston: Society of Economic Paleontologists and Mineralogists. In SEPM Short Course (no. 6).
  • Buzas, Martin A. 1979. "The measurement of species diversity." In Foraminiferal ecology and paleoecology. Lipps, Jere H., Berger, H., Buzas, Martin A., Douglas, R. G., and Ross, C. A., editors. 3–10. Houston: Society of Economic Paleontologists and Mineralogists. In SEPM short course (no. 6).
  • Buzas, Martin A. 1978. "Community Unity? Patterns in Molluscs and Foraminifera." In Estuarine Interactions. 173–190. Academic Press, Inc.
  • Buzas, Martin A. 1970. "On the quantification of biofacies." In Computers in Paleontology. Raup, David M., editor. 101–116. Lawrence, KS: Allen Press.
Book Review
  • Buzas, Martin A. 1995. [Book review] "The Challenger Foraminifera - Jones,rw." Science, 268, (5214), 1208–1209.
  • Buzas, Martin A. 1984. [Book review] "Biotic Interactions in Recent and Fossil Benthic Communities - Tevesz,mjs, Mccall,pl." American Scientist, 72, (5), 515–516.