Mary Higby Schweitzer is a vertebrate paleontologist and evolutionary biologist who specializes in recovery of biomolecules from ancient fossils, including dinosaurs. She is a tenured full professor in the Department of Biological Sciences at North Carolina State University, a Curator of Paleontology and the NC Museum of Natural Sciences, and Research Curator at the Museum of the Rockies. She received her B.S. in Communicative Disorders from Utah State University and her Ph.D. in Biology from Montana State University in 1977 and 1995, respectively. Her research interests include molecular paleontology, molecular diagenesis and taphonomy, and molecular/chemical origins of life.