1 August, 2001
Alexandre Cunha Ribeiro
Universidade de Sao Paulo
Ribeirao Preto, Sao Paulo, Brazil
Dear Members of the Kennington Endowment,
I would like to express my greatest thankfulness to the opportunity you had
given me. Without your support I would not have been able to participate on
the Research Training Program of the National Museum of Natural History. Coming
to an institution where everyone is concerned with the development of science
was a very good experience.
Here in the museum I had the opportunity to work with Dr. Richard Vari, one
of the most respected ichthyologists. It has been very good to talk about
all the problems concerning the systematics of Characidae, to ask for advice
and talk about Ichthyology as a whole. He has taught me a lot, and certainly
I learned a lot from his vast experience.
This particular problem I did with his help concerned the phylogeny ( evolutionary
relationships) of a group of characids from Brazil and neighboring countries
and that phylogeny together with a study of the historical geology of their
region provides an interesting hypothesis concerning the evolution of these
fishes. This internship meant a lot to me. Besides the knowledge I acquired
about my research subject and my major area of interest, it was a chance to
meet different researchers, learn about different fields in the natural sciences
and listen to different opinions on controversial topics of science.
Once again I would like to express my gratitude to the Kennington Endowment
for providing me the financial support that made possible this wonderful experience.
Sincerely,
Alexandre Cunha Ribeiro
Research Training Program, 2001