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Annals of the Smithsonian Institution 1999 



November 22 



■ Public program Reception and screening of documentary 

 film "442: For the Future." Cosponsored with Japanese 

 American Memorial Foundation. 



November 24 



■ Exhibition The Rocks Gallery opened at the National 

 Museum of Natural History, completing the museum's 

 newly renovated Janet Annenberg Hooker Hall of Geology, 

 Gems, and Minerals. The interactive gallery demonstrates 

 how rocks are formed and how they have recorded the 

 Earth's geological history. 



November 28 



■ Public program "The Puerto Rican Cuatro Festival" at the 

 National Museum of American History. Many actitivies 

 throughout the day. In conjunction with "Encuentros: Latino 

 America at the Smithsonian." 



November 30 



■ Giraffe relocation On November 30, the Zoo's 18-month- 

 old male Masai giraffe, Aaron, left the National Zoo in a 

 specially equipped truck, on a trip to Atlanta, Georgia. On 

 the truck's return trip, the Atlanta Zoo sent Ryma, a 13- 

 year-old male of the same subspecies. 



December 



■ Education initiative The National Postal Museum launches 

 the "Classroom in a Can Lesson One" educational program. 



December 



■ Loeb Fellowship awards SERC Loeb Fellowships were 

 awarded to foster research in the exact sciences in collabora- 

 tion with SERC scientists. A Loeb Fellowship was awarded 

 to Dr. Marilyn L. Fogel of the Carnegie Institution of Wash- 

 ington, D.C., for research using measurements of the natural 

 abundances of stable isotopes to obtain insights into ecologi- 

 cal processes. Another Loeb Fellowship was awarded to Dr. 

 Stephen D. Prince of the University of Maryland College 

 Park to support research using remote sensing to collect en- 

 vironmental data at large spatial scales. 



December 



■ Publication Volume 8, The Papers of Joseph Henry was writ- 

 ten by staff of the Joseph Henry Papers Project, Smithsonian 

 Institution Archives. 



December 



■ Research National Museum of Natural History ichthyolo- 

 gist Stanley Weitzman's studies of South American fishes, 

 primarily the characiform fish groups and catfishes, revealed 



important information about the status of freshwater ecosys- 

 tems and provided important, basic information in support 

 of practical conservation measures. Weitzman was able to 

 demonstrate that the aquatic systems within the Atlantic 

 Forests of Brazil have been severely degraded ecologically. 

 The report of his findings had a practical effect on the con- 

 servation thinking of Brazil's terrestrial biologists. He has 

 also published widely, both for scientific and lay audiences, 

 on the phylogeny of several characid subgroups reporting on 

 reproductive biology, gross anatomy, histology of gonads, 

 and ultrastructure of their reproductive cells. Various aspects 

 of these studies are of practical interest to fisheries biologists 

 in Latin America, because the literally hundreds of characid 

 fishes are the primary forage fishes for a substantial percent- 

 age of the larger fishes suitable for human consumption in 

 that region. 



December 



■ Satellite launch The Submillimeter Wave Astronomy 

 Satellite, designed by SAO for NASA, is successfully 

 launched from a Pegasus-XL vehicle. 



December 



■ Transition process A group of 34 employees at the Tropical 

 Research Institute joined the administration to form com- 

 mittees for the STRI transition that would put in place a 

 new employment system and administrative procedures re- 

 sulting from the termination of the Panama Canal Treaties 

 on December 31, 1999. The transition committees included 

 the Transition Committee, Human Relations Committee, 

 Human Resources Committee, Procedures, Policies and Op- 

 erations Committee, Communications Committee, and the 

 Valuation Committee. 



December 5 



■ Public program NASCAR roared into the Smithsonian in a 

 Smithsonian Associates program with president Bill France 

 and senior vice president Brian France, with NBC newscaster 

 Brian Williams and local sportscaster George Michael 

 adding luster to the evening's festivities. 



December 8 



■ Special event The Annual Appreciation Reception for the 

 Visitor Information and Associates' Reception Center's Corps 

 of Volunteer Information Specialists included remarks by 

 Smithsonian Secretary I. Michael Heyman. 



December 9 



■ Zoo lecture Knut Schmidt-Nielsen, professor emeritus at 

 Duke University, and one of the world's most prominent ani- 

 mal physiologists, is awarded the National Zoo Medal for 

 Outstanding Services to Zoological Sciences and Conserva- 

 tion and presents lecture to Zoo audience. 



