Previous Speakers

Dr. Heitner has been collecting minerals for sixty years. He started as a field collector, collecting in New York, New Jersey, Maine, and other states. Later he started purchasing specimens . He purchased several old collections and became interested in the history of mineral collecting and dealing in the United States. Other interests include fluorescent minerals and pseudomorphs. He was the president of the Stamford Mineralogical Society for many years. In his professional career he was a chemist specializing in water soluble polymers.  Most of his career was spent at Cytec Industries in new product development of chemicals used to process minerals. His post-retirement mineral time has been spent finally organizing and cataloging his collection. He spent several years as an explainer at the AMNH. He is currently a volunteer at the RMSC.

"The word pseudomorph was first used by Hauy in 1801. In Greek it means “false shape.”  A pseudomorph is a mineral that has the external crystal shape of another mineral. The subject of pseudomorphs was first written about in detail by the 19th century German mineralogist Johann Blum. Pseudomorphs were later classified by the mineralogist Strunz in 1982. The talk covers the various theories of how pseudomorphs form. In some cases the second mineral is similar in composition to the original mineral. In those cases, the mechanism is a chemical reaction. In other cases, the two minerals are not similar and the mechanism of pseudomorph formation is more complicated. There is still controversy about the formation of some pseudomorphs. The talk is illustrated with pictures of both common and rare pseudomorphs."

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​February 6, 2026

​Michael Grenier is our editor for this club's newsletter. 

Michael covers what we know about what happened during and after the asteroid impact 66 million years ago and how we know it based on world-wide research. The Chicxulub asteroid impact causing the end-Cretaceous mass extinction event is overwhelmingly accepted within the scientific community, though it was contentious for a long time

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November 7, 2025

The new evidence that T. Rex had feathers and horns. Could the giant long neck dinosaurs swim? Ankylosaur anomalies and other dinosaur mysteries!

Scott McKenzie is a semi- retired paleontologist from Mercyhurst University in Erie. He is an award winning instructor with over 70 scientific publications. Fossils he has found are now at the Carnegie Museum, the Smithsonian, Buffalo Museum of Science and the London Natural History Museum. ​

November 1, 2024​

Guest Speaker Domenic D'Amore will be speaking on Finding Gnatalie: Excavating Dinosaur Fossils in Southeastern Utah  about the sauropod he worked on that will be mounted in LA this fall. 

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​October 4, 2024

Raymond C. Vaughan, Ph.D., P.G., is a professional geologist and environmental scientist in Buffalo. His Ph.D. in geology is from UB. Ray is semi-retired, does some consulting, and has worked on local environmental issues for many years. Earlier in his career, he worked for 33 years in research and development in Niagara Falls and Buffalo, then from 2000 to 2012 as an environmental scientist in the NYS Attorney General’s Office. He has served since 1997 on the West Valley Citizen Task Force which advises NYSERDA and the U.S. Department of Energy on cleanup issues at the West Valley nuclear waste site. From 1980 to 1999 he served on theTown of Hamburg Conservation Advisory Board. He currently sits on the boards of the Buffalo Society of Natural Sciences (parent organization of Buffalo Museum of Science and Tifft) and the Nature Sanctuary Society of WNY, and he formerly served on the Western New York Land Conservancy board from 1991 to 2002. He has a wide range of interests including WNY history, on which he has presented at conferences in Buffalo, Lewiston, and Edinburgh, Scotland. Canoeing, hiking, and sailing are some of his favorite activities. He and his wife Sheila have been married 58 years, share many interests, and have traveled together to many favorite places.​

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April 5, 2024

Caleb Walcott is a PhD candidate in the geology department at the University at Buffalo. He studies the evolution of northern hemisphere ice sheets throughout the late Quaternary using a variety of geochronological tools. His research often takes him far afield to Alaska and Greenland, but some of his most memorable field experiences have been around western New York. Outside of work, he enjoys the bountiful nature that western New York provides year-round by biking, running, skiing, hiking, and hunting – all atop glacial sediments!

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April 4, 2024

In April 2023, two off-duty staff members unearthed the remains of a mysterious and previously undescribed echinoderm while digging for trilobites at Penn Dixie Fossil Park and Nature Reserve in Hamburg. The discovery rocked the scientific community – pun intended, as this particular line of primitive animals was thought to have gone extinct nearly 30 million years earlier. Revival of this ‘Lazarus taxon,’ which originated during the Cambrian explosion when most major animal groups first appeared, sheds new light on our planet’s history of life. The new species is currently under study at the Smithsonian Institution by experts who are eager to establish its proper place in the animal kingdom."

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February 2, 2024

January 5, 2024

Marilyn and Bill Broad discuss how to do wire-wrapping for jewelry and how to do cabochons. Demonstrations will be done. Marilyn has all of the requisite supplies to help you in doing wire-wrapping and Bill has some nice slabs he will work with in making some cabochons. 

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June 28, 2023

November 3, 2023

Mark Castner, retired senior seismologist at Canisius College.

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April 26, 2023

Dr. Lisa Amati, the State Paleontologist at the New York State Museum will be presenting the talk, "New York's Finest Fossils."

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May 5, 2023

The Associate Director of Science Communication at the Paleontological Research Institution will be presenting on the PRI exhibit, “Year of the Devonian."

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April 7, 2023

Glen LaPlaca of Past & Present Science and Nature Store will be giving a presentation on the acquisition of the dinosaur models for this year's Annual Show together with tales of his excavations last summer and the set-ups of the respective displays at various shows.

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March 29, 2023