In this month's "In Depth", we talk with John E. Simmons, a U.S. Fulbright Senior Scholar and world-renowned expert whose mission is to transform the way we preserve the ocean's biological memory.
In the grand tradition of naturalists like Alexander von Humboldt, who sought to weave the disparate threads of the physical world into a unified "cosmos" modern museology is undergoing a profound transformation. At the heart of this evolution is John E. Simmons, a world-renowned expert in collection management and fluid preservation, whose recent residency at the Col·leccions Biològiques Marines de Referència (CBMR) of the ICM-CSIC marks a pivotal moment for Spanish marine science.
Supported by a Fulbright-CSIC Senior Scholar grant, Simmons’ visit represents a bridge between historical "cabinets of curiosities" and the futuristic "extended specimen"—a vision where a physical object serves as the nucleus for an infinite web of digital, genetic, and environmental data.
A legacy born in a basement
With a career spanning over five decades, Simmons is a foundational figure in contemporary museology. Interestingly, his dedication to the "hidden" side of museums—collections management—began long before his professional appointments at the California Academy of Sciences or the University of Kansas.
"I have been interested in museums as long as I can remember, and always wanted to work in a museum," Simmons recalls.
"When I was 13 years old, I found a book in the library called How to Make a Home Nature Museum that inspired me to create my own museum in a corner of the basement—I made collections, created exhibits, wrote labels, all of that". While he initially planned to become a PhD curator, field experiences as an assistant in the Amazon forest of Ecuador and research projects throughout South America shifted his focus. "At some point, I began to realize that working with collections was more interesting to me". This realization led him to become the third person in the U.S. to ever hold the title of "collection manager".
The turning point for Simmons—and for the field at large—came in 1987 during a specialized training program for the care of natural history collections. "The big life-changing event for me was in 1987, when I was one of 15 people accepted for a training program for the care of natural history collections. We learned from conservators and materials scientists that most of what we were doing in collections was wrong and needed to change," he explains. "That experience, learning about preventive conservation, changed everything—I began to question how we were taking care of collections, and to think more about the future of collections".
The “Theory of Musealization”
During his residency at the ICM, Simmons emphasized the "theory of musealization". Rather than seeing a specimen as a "dead object," this framework views it as an information-rich entity that continuously acquires value.
"The theory of musealization puts individual specimens into a broader context as they continuously acquire new information," Simmons notes.
"The theory explains why specimens and objects in museums are valued more highly than the same sorts of things that are not in collections, and why we are able to use specimens in natural science collections for more kinds of research than they were collected to be used for. Musealization explains why specimens are important".
This leads directly to the concept of the "Extended Specimen," which links the physical species to museomics (DNA, RNA, proteins) and digital data like 3D scans. Simmons sees this as a vital bridge for research centers like the ICM: "Traditional taxonomy is very good at identifying species and their relationships to other species, but it does not help much in understanding species in a complex natural context as living, evolving organisms, that are adapted to specific places, but the extended specimen concept does that by linking the basic taxonomic unit—the species—with an enormous variety of other information about the role of a species in nature. It helps us understand and safeguard biodiversity and open new areas of research".
Innovation and the Spanish context
Working with the CBMR provided Simmons with a unique perspective on Spanish marine science. He observed that while Spain has a long tradition of preservation, there is a need to move from tradition to science.
"There are not a lot of marine collections in the world, so one challenge is convincing the scientists in Spain who are doing marine research to deposit some of the specimens they collect in marine collections," he says. "Despite the fact that we have been preserving specimens in alcohol for more than 350 years, most preservation techniques are based on tradition, not science. The ICM has a unique opportunity to develop better preservation methods because of its combination of scientists doing cutting-edge research and the presence of a collection in the same building, and to demonstrate to the community how valuable a research collection is".
Technologically, Simmons is excited about advancements like Raman microspectroscopy. This non-invasive laser technique allows experts to identify chemicals in preservative fluids through the glass. "The technology uses a non-invasive monochromatic laser beam and the vibrational modes of molecules to identify the chemicals in the fluids through the glass, without having to open the container," he explains. "It can identify all the chemicals in the fluid, which also tells us the preservation history of the specimen. It is a very useful technique and gives us information about our specimens that we have never had before".
Sustainable curation and public engagement
Beyond the lab, Simmons’ residency focused on the "sustainable use of resources". To balance high energy costs with environmental needs, he suggests a "passive storage" approach.
"There are only a few big things we can do, but there are lots of smaller things we can do which together will create more sustainable collection management," Simmons argues.
"For example, one of the most important things is use information we are learning from research about how specimens interact with their storage environments to design passive storage—storage areas that are less dependent on heating or air conditioning to provide a stable, long-term environment for the collections. We can use ceiling fans and absorbent materials like lime plaster to moderate high humidity and temperature. We can re-design storage furniture to better protect and insulate specimens. We can find better containers to house specimens that provide more protection from fluctuations in the storage environment". He even suggests retrofitting buildings and encouraging staff "to figure out which parts of their work they can do at home to avoid the climate costs of commuting to work one or two days a week".
Ultimately, Simmons believes the secret to the future of museums lies in transparency and storytelling. "In the more than 55 years that I have worked in museums, one thing I have learned is that the public is really curious about what goes on behind the closed doors where the collections are. The public is fascinated by collections and the stories that they tell," Simmons reflects. "We can use the information that specimens acquire through musealization to create stories that inform people about nature, biodiversity, and climate change... Every specimen has a story behind it—what we need to do is tell those stories to the public".
By ensuring these collections remain in peak condition through professionalized management, Simmons is securing the future of marine research in Spain, ensuring the specimens collected today will continue to tell the story of our oceans for centuries to come.