Paul C. Nascimbene, Paleoentomological Research Assistant to David A. Grimaldi, heads up the Fossil Insect Lab.  Paul conducts laboratory and field research on ancient organisms preserved in amber and sedimentary rock, as well as on the physicochemical nature of amber as a fossil substance.  He developed the vacuum-embedding method now used for close preparation and long-term conservation of amber specimens in museum collections (Nascimbene and Silverstein, 2001), and he continues to generate sophisticated protocols for studying and processing fossil resins. Paul recently participated in an AMNH Expedition to recover amber from the Hell Creek Formation of South Dakota (June 2010), and in AMNH Expeditions to western India (January 2009 and 2010), where he excavated 52 million-year-old Eocene amber from three localities. He has also been a member of AMNH expeditions to Wyoming and Alaska, and has even excavated Cretaceous amber from the wilds of central New Jersey.  Paul is past President of the New York Paleontological Society.