FIELD BRIEFS 



Distinguished Scientist Award 

 to Robert F. Inger 



The Department of Zoology proudly announces the 

 honorary appointment of Dr. Robert F. Inger, curator of 

 Amphibians and Reptiles, as Distinguished Scientist of 

 Field Museum. Dr. Inger is a skilled naturalist and 

 world authority on the systematics and natural history 

 of amphibians and reptiles, especially of the Far East. 

 Dr. Inger is well recognized in the scientific community 

 for his biogeographic, systematic, and faunal studies, 

 and for his important papers on the ecology of rain for- 

 est communities in Southeast Asia. Most recently, he 

 has been working annually in Sahah (Island of Bor- 

 neo), where he is an honorary curator and professor at 

 the Sarawak Museum in Kuching, Sarawak, Malaysia. 

 Throughout his career. Dr. Inger provided generous 

 service to the scientific community as editor or mem- 

 ber of the editorial boards of four international scien- 

 tific societies, and as program director for Environmen- 

 tal Biology during a two-year appointment at the 

 National Science Foundation. On the basis of his rec- 

 ord of innovative research and service to the scientific 

 community. Dr. Inger's colleagues elected him to the 

 presidencies of three international societies: the Amer- 

 ican Society of Ichthyologists and Herpetologists, the 

 Herpetologists League, and the Society of Systematic 

 Zoology. In addition, he was elected to the vice- 

 presidency of the Society for the Study of Evolution. 

 Dr. Inger's outstanding achievements in many areas of 

 science, both in the national and international arenas, 

 make him a most deserving recipient of Field Museum's 

 first Distinguished Scientist appointment. 



Larry Heaney Joins Mammals Staff 



The Department of Zoology's most recent member is 

 Larry Heaney, who has been appointed assistant cura- 

 tor of Mammals. A native of Washington, D.C., where 

 he attended high school, Heaney earned his bachelor's 

 degree at the University of Minnesota and his M.A. 

 and Ph.D. at the University of Kansas. His special 

 interests include evolutionary biogeography, particu- 

 larly concerning the mammals of Southeast Asia. 



Timothy C. Plowman 

 1944-1989 



Timothy C. Plowman, a member of the Botany De- 

 partment staff since 1976, died on January 7 after a 

 long illness. He served as chairman of the department 

 from 1986 to 1988 and at the time of his death was 

 curator. 



Dr. Plowman grew up in Harrisburg, Pennsyl- 

 vania, and attended college at Cornell University. His 

 graduate studies at Harvard resulted in a Master's 

 Degree in 1970 and a doctorate in 1974. His research 

 interests at Harvard, under the guidance of Richard 

 Evans Schultes, focused on ethnobotany and plant sys- 

 tematics. Though his systematic studies began with 

 Brunfelsia (tomato family), he soon focused on the tax- 

 onomy and ethnobotany of Erythroxylum (coca) as his 

 primary interest. He did intensive fieldwork and col- 

 lecting in tropical South America, Central America, 

 and the Caribbean. Because he interacted so well with 

 many diverse scholars, he was able to promote a wide 

 range of interdisciplinary studies regarding the 

 archaeology, ethnobotany, chemistry, and pharmacol- 

 ogy of coca and other economic plants. 



He became tenured at the Museum in 1983 and 

 was appointed curator in 1988. He published over 60 

 scientific papers, many of them dealing with ethnobo- 

 tany and ethnopharmacology. He served as the editor 

 of the Museum's journal, Fieldiana, for four years, and 

 served in an editorial capacity for several other jour- 

 nals. During his two years as chairman of the Botany 

 Department, he obtained a substantial increase in NSF 

 funding for the herbarium, and he developed a new 

 facility for the curation of the economic collections. 

 His strong motivation and high professional standards 

 were evident in all his work, and these attributes made 

 him an effective chairman and editor. His collecting of 

 research materials for others and his commitment to 

 providing identifications made him many friends. 



The Department of Botany has established the 

 Timothy C. Plowman Fund for South American 

 Research. Contributions may be made to this fund 

 through the Department of Botany. 



