through 13 the United National Programme for the Environ- 

 ment and STRI cohosted a conference on canopy research. The 

 meeting brought together researchers from the seven canopy 

 research projects worldwide who formed a network for com- 

 parisons among sites. From March 16 through 22, specialists 

 attended the Meeting of the 8th International Council of 

 Zooarchaeology held at STRI. 



Thanks to a donation from the government of Denmark, 

 STRI installed a second crane in very wet forest on the Carib- 

 bean side of the Panamanian isthmus. The crane was visited 

 by Panamanian president Ernesto Perez Balladares and mem- 

 bers of his cabinet on May 9 as part of a seminar on environ- 

 mental issues for decision-makers organized by CEASPA and 

 funded by the Agency for International Development. 



As part of the International Year of the Reef, the STRI 

 bilingual exhibition "Our Reefs: Caribbean Connections" 

 began its travels in February, opening for three months at the 

 Miami International Airport, supported by Dade County, 

 later travelling to Washington, D.C., where it was on display 

 at the headquarters of the InterAmerican Bank and at Union 

 Station, thanks to the Henry Foundation. With support for 

 the Corporacion Panameha de Aviacion (COPA), the exhibi- 

 tion started its Caribbean tour in July, opening at the San 

 Pedro Sula Airport in Honduras, hosted by the Honduran 

 Coral Reef Fund. 



The original laboratory building on STRI's Barro Colorado 

 Island biological reserve was renovated as a visitor center with 

 support from the Fundacion NATURA, the Robert E. Silber- 

 glied Memorial Fund, and the Eugene Eisenmann Fund. The 

 center was dedicated to the memory of the late Martin H. 

 Moynihan, STRI's first director. A new permanent exhibition, 

 "The Forest Speaks," opened in June 1997 at the visitor center 

 and features the island's history and current research. 



Another of STRI's outreach efforts, its Marine Exhibition 

 Center, a partnership with the Fundacion Smithsonian de 

 Panama, received more than 60,000 visitors this fiscal year. 

 From March through September 1997, the Center, located at 

 very close proximity to STRI's Naos Marine Laboratories, 

 featured the temporary bilingual exhibit: "Harnessing 

 the Forces of Nature," developed by rhe Panama Canal 

 Commission. 



The exhibit: "Insects: Friends and Foes" was on display at 

 the Earl S. Tupper Exhibit Hall and was visited by hundreds 

 of schoolchildren. The exhibit highlights Panama's insect 

 biodiversity and included some live specimens of cave roaches. 



STRI created what can be described as a stationary exhibit 

 using the latest in Internet technology. STRI's World Wide 

 Web site is STRI's way of taking advantage of the Internet to 

 communicate what it has to offer to anywhere in the world. 



A major accomplishment this year was the signing of an 

 agreement on June 20, 1997, by Panamanian Foreign 

 Relation's Minister Ricardo Alberto Arias and STRI director 

 Ira Rubinoff that ensures that STRI operations will continue 

 beyond the termination of the Panama Canal Treaty on 

 December 31, 1999. 



STRI was visited this year by U.S. White House Fellows, 

 several Panamanian legislative committees, members of the 

 U.S. Congress, Alan Alda and Mariel Hemingway, who 

 hosted documentaries about STRI, and Latin American writer 

 Mario Vargas Llosa, among many others. 



Smithsonian Environmental 

 Research Center 



Ross B. Simons, Acting Director 



1997 was a year of transition for the Smithsonian Environmental 

 Research Center (SERC), with longtime Director David Correll 

 returning to his research and the appointment of Ross Simons 

 as Acting Director. Dr. Correll's tenure as Director witnessed 

 an impressive period of growth in both research and education 

 SERC, which was capped by the opening of the new Philip D. 

 Reed Education Center. SERC, during the period of Dr. Correll's 

 leadership, expanded its research focus from the linked eco- 

 systems of the Rhode River watershed to become an inter- 

 national facility for studying landscape processes throughout 

 the world. 



The entire SERC staff participated in a series of reviews late 

 in the year to set the course for SERC's progress in research 

 and education over the next decade. A team of outside 

 reviewers, led by Dr. Paul Risser, President of Oregon State 

 University, reaffirmed SERC's international leadership as a 

 center devoted to the increase of knowledge of the biological 

 and physical processes that sustain life on Earth. The staff 

 played important leadership positions in a host of ecological 

 research areas, and certain staff were recognized for their work 

 by appointment to prestigious positions. For example, 

 Dr. Dennis Whigham has been appointed a Bullard Fellow 

 at Harvard University and a Professor of Landscape Ecology 

 at Utrecht University in The Netherlands. Research produc- 

 tivity remained high, and SERC's work was increasingly 

 linked to societal issues ranging from global climate to in- 

 vasive species research. Educational efforts were expanded 

 with the opening of the Reed Center, and greater constitu- 

 encies in the Baltimore-Washington megalopolis were served. 

 External grant and contract activities, a mainstay of SERC's 

 program, continued at an all-time high, reflecting the con- 

 fidence of peer reviewers in the high quality of SERC re- 

 search. These funds are being increasingly supplemented by 

 support from rhe private philanthropic sector. Management 

 also was aided by a series of studies from the firm of KPMG 

 Peat Marwick, which assured the continued financial security 

 of SERC. SERC's new external Advisory Board met several 

 times during the year and provided positive and steady 

 guidance as SERC moves toward the new millennium. 

 Notable accomplishments of 1997, described below, reflect 

 SERC's emphasis on studying the large-scale environmental 



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