the museum's director from 1983 until her death in 

 February 1996. 



December 1 



■ Research Result An international team of astronomers 

 including an SAO scientist produced a "movie" of the 

 expansion of debris from an exploding star by using a 

 global network of radio telescopes. The extraordinary 

 time-lapse sequence of images documents the supernova 

 explosion over a 12-month period. 



December 2 



■ Research The Ultraviolet Coronograph Spectrometer 

 (UVCS), conceived and designed by SAO scientist to 

 study the solar wind by creating a permanent, artificial 

 eclipse to allow continuous ultraviolet observations of 

 the Sun's corona, was launched from Kennedy Space 

 Flight Center aboard the Solar Heliospheric Obser- 

 vatory (SOHO) mission. Built by the European Space 

 Agency in cooperation with NASA, SOHO is focused 

 on understanding the complex relationship among the 

 Sun, Earth, and human activities. 



December 5 



■ Annual Lecture "In Search of the 1995 Carnegie Inter- 

 national," a slide-illustrated talk by curator and critic 

 Richard Armstrong, was this year's Mordes Lecture in 

 Contemporary Art, the third such talk sponsored by Dr. 

 Marvin and Elayne Mordes of Baltimore at the 

 Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden. Other non- 

 exhibition-related guest speakers during the year in- 

 cluded sculptor Judith Shea, discussing her work, on 

 February 28 as part of the "Collection Reviewed" pro- 

 gram, and curator Bernard Blistene from France, whose 

 lecture, held May 7 in cosponsorship with the Alliance 

 Franchise of Washington, D.C., was on French art since 

 i960. 



December 4 



■ Research Research into Cambrian- and pre- 

 Cambrian-era fossils conducted by Dr. Douglas Erwin, a 

 paleobiologist at the National Museum of Natural His- 

 tory, was the focus of Time magazine's cover story. 

 "When Life Exploded: Evolution's Big Bang." In 1996, 

 the Paleontological Society presented Erwin with the 

 Schuchert Award for outstanding achievement by a 

 scientist under 40. 



December 5—p 



U Presentation National Science Resources Center Ex- 

 ecutive Director Douglas Lapp discussed curriculum in- 

 novations and their impact on the teaching of science 

 and technology at the African Science and Technology 

 Education Towards the Future conference, held at the 

 University of Durban- Westville, South Africa. 



December 7 



■ Symposium The public symposium, Elephants on the 

 Brink: Smithsonian Research and Efforts to Conserve the 

 Giant Species, highlighted the work of Smithsonian scien- 

 tists to conserve Asian elephants in the world and at the 

 Zoo. Special presentations were devoted to veterinary 

 and pathologic detective work on a lethal virus that 

 kills young elephants. Another presentation focused on 

 collaborative efforts with a visiting scientist from Ger- 

 many in the use of state-of-the-art ultrasound techni- 

 ques as an aid in the Zoo's efforts to develop Asian 

 elephant artificial insemination procedures. 



December p 



m Workshop The Kwanzaa Family Workshop at the 

 Anacostia Museum presented a program of crafts and 

 storytelling as well as activity ideas for the celebration 

 of this Aftican American holiday in your own home. 



December 12 



■ Special Event VIARC celebrated its silver jubilee in 

 the Castle on the occasion of the annual appreciation 

 event for Volunteer Information Specialists which in- 

 cluded remarks by Secretary Heyman. 



December 18 



■ Publication The Accessibility Program in the Office 

 of the Provost issued guidelines for creating Smith- 

 sonian unit five-year plans for improving access for 

 people with disabilities. Every organization in the In- 

 stitution reviewed for accessibility all its exhibitions, 

 publications, and audiovisual presentations. Each unit 

 was then responsible for submitting to the Provost by 

 September 3, 1996, a plan to correct deficiencies. In tan- 

 dem with this project, a facilities survey and an im- 

 plementation plan ate being developed by the Office of 

 Physical Plant. 



-s 



