THE FIELD MUSEUM 1999 ANNUAL REPORT TO THE BOARD OF TRUSTEES ACADEMIC AFFAIRS Center for Evolutionary and Environmental Biology (CEEB) Center for Cultural Understanding and Change (CCUC) Office of Academic Affairs, The Field Museum 1400 South Lake Shore Drive Chicago, IL 60605-2496 USA Phone (312) 665-7811 Fax (312) 665-7806 WWW address: http://www.fmnh.org - This Report Printed on Recycled Paper - March 20, 2000 -1- CONTENTS 1999 Annual Report – Introduction.......................................................................................................3 Table of Organization........................................................................................................................8 Collections & Research Committee of the Board of Trustees.................................................................9 Academic Affairs Staff List.............................................................................................................10 Center for Cultural Understanding and Change: “Understanding Cultural Diversity”.........................15 Center for Cultural Understanding and Change: Programs and Initiatives..........................................17 Environmental and Conservation Programs........................................................................................19 The Field Museum and Chicago Wilderness......................................................................................20 The Field Museum Web Site.............................................................................................................21 Training Programs, 1999....................................................................................................................22 Publications, 1999.............................................................................................................................25 Active Grants, 1999..........................................................................................................................43 Museum and Public Service, 1999.......................................................................................................51 Professional Travel, 1999..................................................................................................................60 Contributions to Public Learning, I, 1999............................................................................................72 Contributions to Public Learning, II, 1999...........................................................................................83 Academic Affairs Interns and Trainees, 1999.....................................................................................94 Resident Graduate Students, 1999.....................................................................................................96 Academic Affairs Volunteers, 1999...................................................................................................97 Honorary Appointments, 1999...........................................................................................................99 Collection Statistics, 1999...............................................................................................................105 Computer Services...........................................................................................................................110 The Field Museum Library...............................................................................................................116 The Field Museum Press...................................................................................................................118 Photography..................................................................................................................................119 Pritzker Laboratory for Molecular Systematics and Evolution...........................................................122 Scanning Electron Microscope...........................................................................................................123 Scholarship Committee..................................................................................................................124 -2- ACADEMIC AFFAIRS - 1999 ANNUAL REPORT 1999 was a year of significant transition and achievement for the people and programs that together constitute the research and collections component of The Field Museum, collectively known as Academic Affairs. The following pages detail the many accomplishments through which the Museum’s scientific staff advanced the core mission of the institution. Perhaps the most notable transition was the departure in August of Peter Crane, Vice President, Academic Affairs. After nearly seventeen years with the Museum, and more than seven as Vice President, Crane left to assume the position as Director of the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew. Crane’s legacy at The Field would be difficult to overestimate. Besides being a brilliant scientist—as evidenced by his election to the Royal Society in 1998—Crane left his mark on both research and public education at the Field through his leadership of the Museum’s scientific programs. Besides cultivating a world-class faculty and stimulating an outstanding record of external fund-raising, Crane further developed the Center for Cultural Understanding and Change (CCUC) and Center for Evolutionary and Environmental Biology (CEEB), and advanced the Museum’s conservation efforts by creating the Office of Environmental and Conservation Programs (ECP) in 1993. Crane worked tirelessly to strengthen the research profile of the Museum, and to further the integration of its collections-based research with its public programs—the notable examples being Underground Adventure, which he conceived in 1993, and the Museum web site, which under his direction advanced from a small-scale experiment to an award- winning destination with a million-plus annual visitors. During the interim while a new V. P. is sought, leadership of Academic Affairs has been taken up by the Academic Affairs Management Group: Rüdiger Bieler (Chair, Zoology), Gary Feinman (Chair, Anthropology), John Flynn (Chair, Geology), Debra Moskovits (Director, Environmental and Conservation Programs), Gregory Mueller (Chair, Botany), Catherine Sease (Head Conservator, Anthropology, and Chair of Collections and Research Professional Staff), William Stanley (Collection Manager, Mammals), Alaka Wali (Director, Center for Cultural Understanding and Change), and Mark Westneat (Associate Curator, Zoology, and Chair of the Science Advisory Council). This group also serves as the Search Committee for the Vice President, Academic Affairs. Under the guidance of this team, the transition has gone smoothly, and the progress in the Museum’s scientific programs has continued unabated. While Crane’s departure was a loss, significant additions to the Academic Affairs staff in 1999 continued to enhance vitality of the Museum’s collections and research efforts. In the late summer, Gary Feinman joined the Department of Anthropology as Chair and Curator for Mesoamerican Archeology and Anthropology. Feinman has an international reputation as a leading scholar of Mesoamerica, and has recently undertaken extensive archeological survey research in China as well. Also in the summer, Anne Underhill joined Anthropology as Assistant Curator for East Asian Anthropology, and Zoology welcomed Paul Goldstein as Assistant Curator of Insects. Underhill, recently of Yale University, is considered a leading scholar of archeology in China, and is one of only three North American-based archeologists to be granted permission to conduct research in China. Goldstein arrives with a strong specimen-based background in moths and butterflies, and a broad range of interests and talents, from habitat conservation to plant-insect co-evolution to cladistic methodology. Eve Emshwiller joined the Museum as the Abbott Laboratories Adjunct Curator of Economic Botany early in the year. Her research focuses on the systematics, genetic diversity and ethnobotany of the Andean tuber crop "oca" (Oxalis tuberosa) and its wild relatives. William Alverson began working as a Conservation Ecologist with ECP and Botany in June, after four years of molecular evolution/ systematics research at Harvard University. He has extensive experience in conservation biology and forest management, and more recently with decentralized data networks for botanical images and standard reference lists of the scientific names of plants. -3- Two of our junior faculty were promoted in 1999. Meenakshi Wadhwa was promoted to Associate Curator of Meteoritics (Geology), and Chaparukha Kusimba was promoted to Associate Curator for African Archaeology and Ethnology. Since her 1995 appointment, Wadhwa has pursued a dynamic research program and conducted very active curation of the meteoritics collection, leading to the addition of several significant specimens. In addition to research support, she has secured extremely competitive lab and equipment funding from both NSF and NASA, including awards totaling over $500,000 for the creation of a Geochronology Lab. Kusimba uncovered new insights into the rise of states on the East Coast of Africa, and his recently published book The Rise And Fall of Swahili States (Altamira Press) is already being hailed as a landmark in African Archeology. In addition, Peter Wagner was recently re-appointed to another three-year term as Assistant Curator in the Department of Geology. Wagner is an invertebrate paleontologist specializing