Dr. Lydia Tackett is a new faculty member at Missouri State University.

She joined the College of Natural and Applied Sciences as an assistant professor in the School of Earth, Environment and Sustainability in fall 2025.

Originally from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, she discovered her love for science late in college, eventually earning a PhD in Earth Science. Her distinctive academic path helps her connect with students who may feel uncertain about their place in the field of science, technology, engineering and math.

“I never saw myself as a science person initially,” Tackett said. “I want students to know they don’t have to have it all figured out at the start.”

A passion for fossils, sediment and students

Tackett’s research blends paleontology and sedimentology, focusing on how predator-prey relationships change after major Earth events, like asteroid impacts or climate shifts.

Recently, her work has centered on microfossils, particularly fish teeth, most no bigger than grains of sand. These tiny fossils offer big insights into ancient food webs and are often missed by traditional fossil-hunting methods.

Attention to detail is what sets her apart. Not many researchers take the time to dissolve rocks in acid and pick through them under a microscope. Tackett does both and brings students along with her both in the lab and in the field to collect the materials.

She also recently received a National Science Foundation grant to explore early animal fossils in the state of Nevada, supporting fieldwork and hands-on student research.

“This grant gives us the chance to take students into the field and uncover fossils that haven’t seen the light of day in half a billion years,” said Tackett. “It’s the kind of experience that can shape a student’s entire career.”

Building opportunities in Blunt Hall

Tackett’s lab, housed in the new addition of Roy Blunt Hall, is bustling with fossils, tubes of sediment and trays of teeny teeth.

Undergraduate and graduate students help identify specimens, analyze materials and archive data. They develop not just skills, but full-fledged research projects. Examples include characterizing how clam shells changed size and shape when predators increased in the Triassic Period, figuring out paleo-environments using sediments and sedimentary structures in rocks and developing models for how strange iron sediments formed.

Her mentorship style focuses on independence and impact.

“I want students to walk away with tangible outcomes, whether that’s a conference presentation, a co-authored manuscript or the confidence to ask scientific questions of their own,” she said.

 A piece of advice

For those starting out on their faculty journey, Tackett offers simple but critical advice: protect your writing time.

“Writing up your results is the first thing that falls off your schedule,” she said. “Finding time and space to keep publishing is so important.”

Fortunately, Missouri State offers writing support programs she was quick to join and encourages others to do the same.

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