How Sam Neill’s Jurassic Park performance inspired a generation of paleontologists

“Sam Neill’s performance shaped the trajectory of my life,” says Jake Kotevski, a palaeontologist at Monash University in Melbourne. “For as long as I could remember, I wanted to be a palaeontologist, to be Dr Alan Grant. But also to share his values – quiet intelligence, a sense of wonder, a cool head and a protective father (or father figure). Jurassic Park has been with me forever, through good times and bad. There would be no Dr Kotevski without Dr Grant.”