iField MuseumMuseum Campus, Near South Side
The Changing Face of Science
This exhibition has ended.
A rotating Comer Gallery series profiling Field Museum scientists (currently Lesley de Souza and Sara Ruane) following their research journeys, passions and personalities.
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A big canoe sits in the middle of the room, with footage from Lesley de Souza's latest Amazon expedition projected over it, river sound playing, and netting and a paddle beside it. Fish specimens and field photos fill the space around. De Souza says the first time she lifted a seine net in the Amazon she was "mesmerized by what is in rivers just below the surface."
This is the sixth and final part of a series the Field Museum began in 2022 to profile its women scientists and scientists of color. You follow de Souza, a child of Brazilian immigrants, from being the only woman on an expedition to leading the largest multidisciplinary scientific expedition to Guyana's rainforest in 2024. The neighbouring section on herpetologist Sara Ruane, with its pink and black walls and a rebuilt 1925 curator's office next to hers, is listed by the museum as temporarily closed.
It's in the Comer Gallery, included with general admission, and closes on 18 October 2026.
Look for
The expedition canoe
Look for the large canoe at the centre, with video from de Souza's recent Amazon expedition projected over it to the sound of the river.
Fish specimens and field images
Cases of preserved fish and photos from the field show what de Souza finds when she pulls a net through Amazonian rivers.
Good for
- Locals Who've Seen It All
- Nerding Out
Skip if
You're coming for Sara Ruane: the museum lists her section as temporarily closed.
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Image credits
8
- Field MuseumPaul Sableman via Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 2.0
- If Emmett Till Lived: Freedom on American GroundCourtesy of Museum of Contemporary Photography
- Self, Made: Fourteen Modern Artists from the Richard and Ellen Sandor Family CollectionCourtesy of Richard and Ellen Sandor.
- Saint-Porchaire Ceramics: Rediscovered Treasures of the French RenaissancePrivate collection. Paul-David Young/Spektra Imaging LLC.
- Shedd AquariumDiego Delso, via Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0
- Museum of Contemporary PhotographyAjay Suresh via Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 2.0
- Adler PlanetariumMichael Barera, via Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0
- Art Institute of ChicagoDiego Delso, via Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0