and presenr and future projects in the areas of research, educa- 

 tion, construction and telecommunications. 



Several major construction projects completed this year 

 advanced the master plan of STRI facilities. The renovation 

 of two floors of Building 352, formerly Surfside Theater, and 

 occupied for several years by STRI's Oil Spill Project, added 

 new offices and laboratories for fellows and visitors at the 

 Naos Marine Laboratories. 



Construction of the annex for the Earl S. Tupper Library 

 and renovation of the original building were also completed. 

 This represents a significant expansion of the STRI Library 

 facilities made possible by a gift from the Tupper family. A 

 bronze bust by sculptor Jay Carpenter of Earl S. Tupper, 

 founder of Tupperware and supporter of STRI, was placed in 

 the plaza outside the library. A mosaic based on the work of 

 the Panamanian artist Brooke Alfaro, that was contributed by 

 the artist to STRI, adorns the facade of the new annex. The 

 work, entitled "El Trueque" ("The Exchange") symbolizes 

 Panama's traditional role as a site of biological, cultural and 

 commercial exchange. 



On Barro Colorado Island, construction of new labora- 

 tories, housing units for workers and visitors, and a new 

 pier completed a major part of the program, begun in 

 1987, to replace buildings from the 1920s and improve the 

 field station's living and working facilities. The new 

 building has seven individual laboratories, a chemistry 

 lab, instrument room, computer room, a darkroom, and 

 walk-in freezer. 



During FY95 construction progressed on the renovation 

 and conditioning of the Ancon facility to house the Center for 

 Tropical Paleoecology and the building and installation of the 

 new back up generator for the Tupper Research and Confer- 

 ence Center complex. 



A major advancement this year was the installation of a sat- 

 ellite earth station at the Tupper Center to establish more reli- 

 able communications between STRI and SI. The satellite link 

 will provide both data and voice services, thus helping to re- 

 duce communication expenses at both ends. 



Of special interest was the publication of Fishes of the 

 Eastern Tropical Pacific, coauthored by Gerald R. Allen and 

 STRI staff scientist D. Ross Robertson. The most comprehens- 

 ive guide of the fishes of the region, this publication is now 

 being translated into Spanish. 



The Spanish version of the executive summary of STRI's 

 Oil Spill Project's final report was published this year and dis- 

 tributed widely by the Office of External Affairs. Also pub- 

 lished, by Texas University Press, was the book Plants and 

 Animals in the Life of the Kuna by STRI's environmental conser- 

 vation specialist Jorge Ventocilla, Heraclio Herrea and Valerio 

 Nunez, and translated by Elisabeth King. 



Another translation that saw the light of day this year was 

 La domesticacion y cri'a de la paca I Agouti paca) Guia FAO 

 Conservacion No. 26 (The domestication and rearing of the 

 paca, Agouti paca, FAO Conservation Guide No. 26 ), by Nich- 

 olas Smythe and Ofelina Brown de Guanti, formerly at STRI. 



The project on which this publication was based was sup- 

 ported by a grant from the W. Alton Jones Foundation. 



To reach wider audiences STRI published jointly with 

 Panama's newspaper LA PRENSA 12 monthly color supple- 

 ments in Spanish entitled "Naturaleza Tropical." The supple- 

 ments, written for lay audiences by STRI scientists and 

 collaborators, dealt with various aspects of Panama's natural 

 history and were enthusiastically received by readers. 



With support from the SI Women's Committee the Span- 

 ish version of a second edition of A Day on Barro Colorado Is- 

 land was completed. The English version will be out in 

 October, as will the Spanish edition of the guidebook for visi- 

 tors to the Fausto Bocanegra Nature Trail on Barro Colorado 

 Island. 



Two new fellowships were established and awarded this 

 year. The Earl S. Tupper 3-year Postdoctoral Fellowship was 

 awarded to Ulrich Mueller, a researcher from Cornell Univer- 

 sity, who will conduct studies on the evolution and the ecol- 

 ogy of the Attine fungus symbiosis. The Fellowship in honor 

 of the late Alan P. Smith was awarded to senior botany stu- 

 dent, Eloisa Lasso, from the University of Panama, who will 

 conduct her thesis research on the canopy access system pion- 

 eered by Smith. 



In FY 95 the recipient of the Burch Fellowship in Theoreti- 

 cal Medicine and Affiliated Sciences was Pedro Leon Azofeifa, 

 from the Cell and Molecular Biology Research Center of the 

 University of Costa Rica. He received this distinction for his 

 theoretical and applied work in vertebrate genetics and he 

 will be interacting with STRI scientists during the course of 

 this fellowship. 



To promote cooperation between the Organization of Tropi- 

 cal Studies (OTS) and STRI, the Andrew W. Mellon Founda- 

 tion awarded a three-year grant of 8350,000 to be shared 

 equally by STRI and OTS. The grant will fond exchange vis- 

 its by STRI and OTS researchers as well as visits by outside 

 researchers. 



A generous contribution of one million dollars was made 

 by Glenn O. Tupper to the Earl S. Tupper Fund to support sci- 

 entific research at STRI. The STRI Development Office began 

 this year an "Alumnus Development Program" which raised 

 approximately $10,000. Numerous letters received from STRI 

 alumni provided testimony to the important role STRI has 

 played in the careers of many biologists and conservationists. 



The Smithsonian Board of Regents approved the use of the 

 name Fundacion Smithsonian de Panama for a new founda- 

 tion to be established in Panama that will raise funds for 

 STRI projects, specifically those that would involve outreach 

 to the Panamanian community. One major project supported 

 by this group of corporate and individual donors is the Ma- 

 rine Exhibition Center at Culebra Point. A pilot marine envi- 

 ronmental education program at this site has received over 

 20,000 students from the pre-kindergarten through the uni- 

 versity levels. 



The U.S. Department of Defense provided funding to two 

 STRI projects through its Legacy Program. The first project 



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