“Whale Research at the Smithsonian: Past, Present and Future” Symposium

Please join us for:
“Whale Research at the Smithsonian
Past, Present and Future”
Thursday June 6, 2013, 10:30 am – 5:00 pm

A symposium associated with the exhibition Whales: Bone to Book*
National Museum of Natural History, Baird Auditorium
This event is FREE and OPEN to the public!

The Smithsonian has studied whales since the 1850s, building collections that are unmatched in the world, and yielding insights into these enigmatic species. Listen to four distinguished speakers describe the origins of this legacy, its scientific value and its future.

 

Program

10:00 AM                    Museum doors open; registration begins

10:30 AM                    Welcome – Dr. Nicholas D. Pyenson, Curator of Fossil Marine Mammals

10:45 – 11:45AM      Prof. R. Ewan Fordyce, University of Otago, New Zealand

“Unraveling the history of whales and dolphins – the most unlikely mammals”

11:45 – 1:15 PM         Lunch on your own

1:30 –   2:30 PM         Prof. D. Graham Burnett, Princeton University, Princeton, NJ

“To be honest, soft anatomy never struck a responsive chord in my makeup: Remington Kellogg among the Whales”

2:30 –   3:00 PM          Dr. Stephen Godfrey, Calvert Marine Museum, Solomons, M

“Fossils from Calvert Cliffs: over 100 years of paleontological discovery”                            

3:00 –   3:30 PM          Break

3:30 –   4:00 PM          Dr. Nicholas Pyenson (with demos by Ms. Holly Little)
“Cetaceans in silico: 3D digitizing fossil whales in the field and in the museum”

4:00 –   5:00 PM          Q&A with speakers (moderated by Pyenson) + wrap-up

For more information, see the event’s website: http://library.si.edu/events/whales-symposium

*The Whales: Bone to Book exhibition will be open to the public starting May 25, 2013. The exhibition will be located in the Evans Gallery of the National Museum of Natural History.