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"Dino" Don Lessem (born 1951) is a writer of more than 50 popular science books, specializing in dinosaurs. He was the founder of the Dinosaur Society and the Jurassic Foundation, which collectively have raised millions of dollars for dinosaur research. ==Career== After a bachelor's degree in art history at Brandeis University and a master's in animal behavior from the University of Massachusetts Boston, Lessem began his writing career as a researcher for the Smithsonian Center for Short-Lived Phenomena. For more than a decade he was a science journalist specializing in conservation issues for the ''Boston Globe'' and a contributor to ''Life'', ''The New York Times'', and ''Smithsonian'' Magazine. Lessem's professional interest in dinosaurs developed while he was a Knight Journalism Fellow at MIT in 1988. He wrote his first book, ''Kings of Creation'', in 1990, as a survey current worldwide paleontology research. Lessem was advisor to ''Jurassic Park'', ''Dinosaur'', and ''Disney's Animal Kingdom'', as well as their respective theme park attractions. He has written and hosted Discovery Channel and ''NOVA'' documentaries on dinosaurs and is a television and radio commentator on paleontology. Lessem's exhibition company, Exhibits Rex, has created several of the largest international travelling museum exhibitions of dinosaurs, including ''Jurassic Park'', ''The Lost World'', and ''Chinasaurs'', in addition to an exhibition of the treasures of Genghis Khan. These exhibitions appear widely in the United States but also have toured Mongolia, Singapore, and Canada. Another of Lessem's companies, Dinodon, Inc., co-holds the sponsorship rights to the principal entry to the Great Wall of China. Lessem has also authored children's books on extinct animals, endangered species, the Amazon rainforest and the "Iceman". Via his monthly column in ''Highlights'' Magazine for a decade, "Dino" Don answered more than 10,000 letters from children. He created the non-profit children's newspaper ''Dino Times'', which ran from 1981 to 1984. At the behest of Universal Studios, 1.3 million copies of a special edition of ''Dino Times'' were distributed at the opening of ''Jurassic Park''. Lessem is also the author of several humorous books including ''Aerphobics'', ''Death by Roller Disco'', ''How to Flatten Your Nose'', and ''The Worst of Everything''. His humorous essays have appeared in ''Punch'', ''The New York Times'' and ''The Atlantic''. Lessem was the creator of Earth Quest Adventures, a theme park and resort planned for East Montgomery County, west of Houston, in 2008. He is also the initial designer of a wetlands attraction in Daqing, China and an paleontology-themed attraction, ''Gondwana: Das Praehistorium'', in Reden, Germany. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Don Lessem」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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