Hans-Dieter Sues
German-born American paleontologist (1956–2026)
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Hans-Dieter Sues (13 January 1956 – 21 February 2026) was a German-born[1] American palaeontologist who was a Senior Research Geologist and Curator of Vertebrate Paleontology at the National Museum of Natural History of the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, DC.[2]
Hans-Dieter Sues | |
|---|---|
 Sues with a cast of a Brontosaurus skull at the Smithsonian | |
| Born | 13 January 1956 Rheydt, North Rhine-Westphalia, West Germany |
| Died | 22 February 2026 (aged 70) Vienna, Virginia, U.S. |
| Occupation | Paleontologist |
| Awards | Alexander von Humboldt Prize (2010) |
Life and career
Sues attended the Johannes Gutenberg-Universität Mainz, the University of Alberta, and Harvard University (Ph.D., 1984).[3] He did work at McGill University and was a research paleobiologist at the Smithsonian before taking a role at the Royal Ontario Museum, where he was vice-president of collections and research.[4]
In 1998, Sues was elected a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science.[5] In 2002, he moved to the Carnegie Museum of Natural History, becoming their curator of vertebrate paleontology.[4] From 2002 to 2004, he was also the president of the Society of Vertebrate Paleontology.[6] In 2003, Sues was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada.[7][8] In 2010, he was awarded an Alexander von Humboldt Prize for Excellence in Research and Teaching.[9]
Sues published on a wide range of extinct Mesozoic and Paleozoic tetrapods, including temnospondyls,[10][11] early reptiles,[12][13] synapsids,[14][15] turtles,[16][17] dinosaurs,[18][19][20][21][22] other archosauromorphs,[23][24][25][26][27] and lepidosauromorphs.[28][29] He also contributed to studies on the evolution of herbivory[30][31] and faunal transitions.[32][33] He primarily studied taxa from North America and Europe.[34][35][36][37] The pachycephalosaur Hanssuesia is named for him.[38]
Sues died on 21 February 2026, at the age of 70.[39]