Founders Symposium
Connecting avocational & professional communities
Every other year, The Western Interior Paleontological Society (WIPS) organizes and presents the Founders Symposium. This weekend event is a celebration of paleontology that features the work of professional scientists, avocational paleontologists, natural science artists and others through talks, posters and displays as well as workshops and occasional field trips.
The biennial Symposium was created in 1998 to honor co-founders Jordan Sawdo and Brian Cooney and all the individuals who formed and guided the Society in its early years. It was first held in 1999.
Proceeds from the Founders Symposiums are the primary source of funding for WIPS grants and scholarships program, which benefits research, education and outreach in paleontology.
Previous Founders Symposia
2025 – Retrospectives: Celebrating 4 Decades of Paleo Advances
2023 – Mammals! From Mini to Megafauna
2019 – Lagerstatten: Exceptional preservation. Extraordinary fossils
2017 – Journey to the Jurassic: Exploring the Morrison Formation
2015 – Fossils & Flight
2013 – Ice Worlds and Their Fossils
2011 – The West that Was: Exploring Colorado’s Fossil Past
2009 – Paleoclimates: Exploring Past Environments
2007 – Inscribd in Stone: Evolution & the Fossil Record
2005 – Extinctions: Punctuations in Time
2003 – Volcanoes, Camels & Carnivores: The Eocene/Oligocene Story
2001 – Exploring Colorado in the Late Cretaceous: When the Mountains Met the Sea
1999 – The K-T Boundary: Extinction & Emergence