Barry S. Kues

Barry Stephen Kues (born March 15, 1946) is an American paleontologist and professor emeritus in the Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences at the University of New Mexico. His research has focused on the stratigraphy and paleontology of the Pennsylvanian, Permian, and Cretaceous formations of the American Southwest, and the study of marine invertebrates and the history of geological research in New Mexico.

Biography Kues was born in Santa Monica, California, and raised in southern California. followed by an M.S. in marine biology from the Scripps Institution of Oceanography at the University of California, San Diego in 1969. He completed his Ph.D. in geology at Indiana University Bloomington in 1974, where his dissertation examined the paleoecology of the Permian Oketo Member of the Barneston Limestone in Kansas and Nebraska.

Career Kues joined the University of New Mexico in 1974 as an assistant professor of geology after completing his Ph.D. at Indiana University Bloomington. He spent his entire academic career at University of New Mexico, becoming associate professor in 1980 and full professor in 1992, and served as chair of the Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences from 1991 to 1999. In 1977, he led a paleontological survey of northwestern New Mexico for the U.S. Bureau of Land Management, and the resulting for a state natural history museum, which opened in 1986.

His research focused on the geology and fossil record of New Mexico and the American Southwest, with emphasis on the Cretaceous and Paleozoic eras.

Kues is an editor and author of The Paleontology of New Mexico, a scholarly volume that documents the fossil record of New Mexico from the Precambrian through the Pleistocene and compiles contributions on the state's paleontology and stratigraphy.

Awards Kues is an Honorary Life Member of the New Mexico Geological Society. He also serves as a member of the Board of Trustees of the New Mexico Museum of Natural History and Science.

Selected Publications Books

Journal Articles and book chapters