Mark Engstrom is the principal curator of the Great Cetaceans: Enter Their Universe exhibition. It all began in May 2014, when he led a ROM team that had gone to Newfoundland to preserve the skeletons and obtain tissue samples from two blue whales for the benefit of the international research community. The ROM exhibit, From the Seabed: The Blue Whale, which Mr. Engstrom also curated, featured one of the skeletons, the second to be exhibited at Memorial University of Newfoundland.

Mr. Engstrom holds a PhD in Wildlife and Fisheries Science (Texas A&M University, 1984), a Master of Science (Fort Hays State University, Kansas, 1978) and a Bachelor of Science with Distinction (University of Minnesota, Duluth, 1975). Beginning in 1982, Mr. Engstrom was a lecturer and assistant professor of biology at Angelo State University in Texas, before joining the ROM in 1988. He served there as Assistant Mammalology Curator, then as Curator and Senior Curator. From 1999 to 2002, he was the Research Director of the ROM. Dr. Engstrom has received several research grants, including from the National Science Foundation (U.S.), the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada, the National Geographic Society, and Conservation International. He has published 100 articles, books and book chapters on his research in evolutionary biology and mammalian systematics.