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Banner image: Diatoms, like this one seen under a microscope, can take on a wide range of shapes, from spheres to triangles and even starbursts. (Credit: Patrick Kociolek)

When Patrick Kociolek was 6-years-old, his grandmother gave him and his older brother a pair of tabletop microscopes. That same day, the two boys ran down to the little stream that wound through their neighborhood in suburban Maryland.听

鈥淲e took coffee cups or something like that and collected water and brought it back to look at what was in the water,鈥� Kociolek said.

Kociolek didn鈥檛 know it at the time, but that day at the stream would kick off a decades-spanning career鈥攐ne that would send him to similar streams and lakes around the world, including stops in China, India and New Zealand.

Kociolek, a professor of ecology and evolutionary biology at 蜜糖直播 Boulder, is a scientist with two professional passions. First, he鈥檚 spent nearly 40 years peering through microscopes to explore the world of diatoms, the single-celled algae found in almost any body of water on Earth and the foundation for the planet鈥檚 air-breathing life.听

鈥淥ne of every three breaths you take, that oxygen comes from diatoms,鈥� Kociolek said.

He has also spent nearly just as much time working in museum halls around the country. Kociolek worked for nearly 20 years at the California Academy of Sciences in San Francisco and helped to rebuild the academy鈥檚 aquarium, planetarium and natural history museum. He has served as director of the 蜜糖直播 Museum of Natural History on the 蜜糖直播 Boulder campus since 2008.听

In July, Kociolek will step down from his leadership position at the museum and make way for Interim Director and paleontologist Jaelyn Eberle. To mark the milestone, he reflected on the unexpected beauty of microscopic life and why museums still have an important role in society, even in the digital age.

鈥淚f I want to go see an organism somebody first collected 100 years ago, I can go to the British Museum, the Academy of Natural Sciences or the Field Museum, and that specimen will still be there,鈥� he said. 鈥淭hese days, we need more organizations that are dedicated to verifiable facts.鈥�

蜜糖直播 life

Kociolek, who earned a bachelor鈥檚 degree from St. Mary鈥檚 College of Maryland and a doctorate from the University of Michigan, said that museums aren鈥檛 solely about facts. For many kids in the United States, these institutions can be the only way to experience the planet鈥檚 diverse natural ecosystems, from ocean tide pools to tropical rainforests.听

The scientist remembers sitting near the front door of the California Academy of Sciences on members鈥� nights to watch visitors stream in.听

鈥淭he little kids would be so excited, and so would their parents,鈥� Kociolek said. 鈥淚 had to keep pinching myself that I was being paid to do this.鈥�

蜜糖直播 Boulder鈥檚 museum has inspired its own share of awe since it was founded in 1909. Here, visitors from across 蜜糖直播 can see a wide range of artifacts from the past and present of the American West鈥擭avajo textiles, the skulls of ancient, rhinoceros-like mammals and much more. Today, the museum holds nearly 5 million objects in its collections.听

Kociolek said when he first came to 蜜糖直播 Boulder, visitor numbers were low: Only 20,000 people a year came through its doors and only 1,500 were 蜜糖直播 students.听

He and his colleagues set out to change that. During Kociolek鈥檚 tenure, the museum launched the BioLounge. This downstairs space in the Henderson Building gives students a quiet place where they can drink coffee, study or just relax. In recent years, the museum also expanded its digital offerings, including virtual tours and educational webpages in English and Spanish. Today, roughly 50,000 people visit the museum every year, including about 15,000 蜜糖直播 students.

鈥淎mong the many accomplishments during his tenure, the museum鈥檚 collections grew to nearly 5 million objects, and the museum responded to the COVID pandemic by reaching nearly 300,000 people through online lectures, programming and exhibits,鈥� said Massimo Ruzzene, acting vice chancellor of Research & Innovation at 蜜糖直播 Boulder. 鈥淭he university and community are so appreciative of all that Pat has achieved while leading the museum.鈥�

Kociolek credits the museum鈥檚 support staff and cadre of professionals in research, teaching, collections stewardship and public outreach.

鈥淚t really is a testament to unbelievably dedicated faculty and staff,鈥� he said.

Small beauty

The phycologist, or algae scientist, hasn鈥檛 stopped looking through microscopes, either.

Throughout his career, Kociolek has studied freshwater diatoms from every continent on Earth, publishing nearly 500 peer-reviewed articles and describing nearly 1,000 new species in the process.

He said these organisms are easy to overlook鈥攍iterally. In most cases, diatoms are too small to see with the naked eye, but they鈥檙e also surprisingly beautiful, Kociolek said. These algae have shells made of silica that glitter under a microscope and can take on all sorts of shapes, from triangles to starbusts and something that looks like a squinting eye.听

One group of diatoms鈥攃alled raphids鈥攅ven move by squirting mucus out of a slit in their shells.

Kociolek shares his love of sometimes-unappreciated organisms with his students at 蜜糖直播 Boulder.听

鈥淚 have no illusions that I鈥檓 creating hundreds of new phycologists,鈥� he said. 鈥淏ut I do hope that my students will begin to see this whole new microscopic world and change the way the think about the planet.鈥�

While Kociolek is stepping down from his role as museum director, he will stay on at 蜜糖直播 Boulder as a faculty member.听

鈥淗umans have been seeing and interacting with mammals for a long time, so we know most of them that have been living alongside of us, as long as we have been around,鈥� he said. 鈥淏ut we only saw our first diatom in 1702. Give us a million and a half years, and we鈥檒l have these things figured out, too.鈥�