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Research
Training Program
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Highlights
from 2006
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Smithsonian
Institution
National Museum of Natural History
Research
Training Program
Photo
Gallery
2006
Planning
the Summer
RTP
Class of '06
Application Review & Selection
Gene
Hunt, Jun Wen and Ashleigh Smythe
reading, reviewing and scoring RTP '06
application documents.
The
RTP '06 selection process followed a multi-step
process involving a host of volunteer
reviewers including former RTP participants.
The process began with a pre-screening
of all application documents. Next a review
and scoring stage to identify finalists
was planned. Still without our on-line
electronic system, the application review
was conducted using paper documents and
staff on-site. This year very few completed
application documents had been received
two weeks prior to the traditional RTP
application deadline of February 1 so
the application deadline was extended
to February 15th and the RTP review panel
decided to eliminate the external review
and scoring phase, but instead the seven
member team personally reviewed and identified
finalists from their represented discipline.
The RTP '06 reviewers included:
Pre-screening:
Elisa Maldonado (RTP '00) & Lynn Copes
(RTP '04)
RTP
Selection Panel:
Anthropology: Lairie Burgess (and Lynn
Copes)
Botany: Jun Wen
Entomology: Ted Schultz
Invertebrate Zoology: Ashleigh Smythe
Mineral Sciences: Tim McCoy
Paleobiology: Gene Hunt
Vertebrate Zoology: Neal Woodman
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Application
Review & Selection
Once
an RTP applicant himself and now a panelist
on the selection committee deciding who
will join the RTP Class of '06, the review
process was particularly interesting,
and rewarding, to Gene Hunt, recently
hired research scientist in Paleobiology
and a former RTP participant about ten
years prior - 1995. Gene had applied at
least once before being offered a position
in the RTP. Inspiration to those students
not selected this year (try again!), and
inspiration to students in the RTP Class
of '06 - where will you be in 10 years?
Any aspiring NMNH scientists among the
group? Check back in 2016.
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Pre-visit
25
April 2006
Preview of the summer
to come:
RTP intern Erin Saupe (left) stopped by
the Museum Tuesday, 25 Apr 06 with her
professor Larry Davis during their vist
to DC as part of the Council on Undergraduate
Research "Posters on the Hill"
session.
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Opening
Registration
& Project Orientation
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30 May 2006
Registration
29
May 2006
Welcome
RTP Class of '06!
Let's begin your adventure.
Each
RTP session traditionally begins
on Memorial Day Monday with
students arriving to the Constitution
Avenue Lobby before the Museum
opens to the public. A brief
orientation to the building
is provided, a "get to
know each other " session,
and of course the necessary
filling in of multiple pages
of required paper forms (afterall,
Smithsonian is a Federal agency
and what's a Federal agency
without multiple copies of paper
forms . . . ).
This
year, as part of the "get
to know each other" session
students were asked to name
something not already included
in the RTP schedule of events
or other planned activities
but an aspect of the Museum
which they hoped to learn more
about, see, or do during their
summer with us. The list:
-
Tour
of the exhibits
- Discussion
with exhibit designers about
how ideas become exhibits
- Discussion
about jobs available at the
Smithsonian
- Discussion
about how NMNHadministratively
fits into the Smithsonian system
- Discussion
about how to develop partnerships
between the Smithsonian and
student's home university
- Discussion
focused on ethics, as related
to specimens on display
- Discussion
with individual scientists about
their research and how they
manage their research programs
- Discussion
about the Museum's visitor services
and opportunities for RTP students
to volunteer their time contributing
to sharing science with the
public (e.g. the cart program)
- Tour
of the ethnology collections
- Field
trip to the Smithsonian Environmental
Research Center (SERC)
- Workshop
on archaeology conservation
techniques
- Workshop
on bird skinning
- Discussion
with the Museum Director about
NMNH strategic goals, mission
and organization
- Discussion
about how to become a NMNH scientist
- Discussion
about collections management,
on a "Smithsonian"
scale
- Field
trip to learn and do insect
collecting techniques
- Discussion
focused on collecting ethics
- Workshop
on insect pinning
- Tour
of the collections and facilities
at the Museum Support Center
- Field
trip to demonstrate other techniques
such as small mammal trapping,
bird mist netting, etc.
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Registration
29
May 2006
All
smiles!
Was
the highlight of the day the
"Visiting Scientist"
badges, with their bright blue
lanyards, that magically open
the "research only"
doors, or the discoveries behind
those doors?
The
quiet Memorial Day Monday also
provided an opportunity for
students to explore the research
and collections areas, finding
their offices and key meeting
locations, without the distraction
of a full complement of staff.
A
special treat this year, former
RTP student, now graduate student
at Arizona State University
- Lynn Copes (RTP '04)- joined
the registration session offering
personal insight into what to
anticipate. Lynn also gave the
students a quick look at some
of the mammal specimens she's
studying as part of her visit,
as well as the vast mammal collections:
from primates to bats to rats.
On a dark and quiet weekend
there's nothing like finding
the cabinets and drawers of
the "largest rat"
specimens!
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See
More . . . Event Photo Gallery from
Registration 
RTP
Fun
Juan
Andres Martinez, Nick Rasmussen
and Jorge Alvarez
Before RTP photo. Check back
in 2 years for the "after'
shot.
With
127 million specimens, six
floors on the East Wing, six
floors in the West Wing, three
floors in the Main part of
the building, seven floors
in the East Court, plus and
attics and basements, there
is a summers worth of behind-the-scenes
areas for RTP to explore at
the Natural History Building.
But that's not all. RTP students
are provided 24/7 access to
the entire Museum, which means
the opportunity to see the
public exhibits before regular
guests arrive and in the evening
after the Museum closes to
the public. An opportunity
students take advantage of
from day one.
Here,
students explore the Paleo
exhibits. Standing in front
of the The Life in the Ancient
Sea reef exhibit, are we looking
at extinction? Certainly not!
Although this is one of the
exhibits that will be lost
when the new Ocean Hall is
constructed, the concepts
and some of the specimens
will reappear in the new hall.
Equally, Juan Andres, Nick
and Jorge plan to be part
of the Museum community for
a long time to come - and
plan reunions at the Museum
many times in the future,
including securing that valued
invitation to the Ocean Hall
opening party, September 2008!
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Group
Photo
30
May 2006
RTP
Class of '06
Front
row (left to right): Nick
Rasmussen, Matthew Oreska,
Katie Faust, Erin Saupe, Alisa
O'Connor, Sara Marsteller,
Juan Andres Martinez, Paige
Hamilton, Kim Vann
Back
row (left to right): Sylvia
Moses, Maya Strahl, Emily
Armguardt, Jayme Job, Megan
Ennis, Julia Brown, Sheena
Ketchum, Jorge Alvarez, Caleb
McMahan, Bryan Cockrell, and
Madison Barkley.
RTP
'06 Staff
Elisa Maldonado
& Mary Sangrey
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See
More . . . Event Photo Gallery from
the Group Photo
Smithsonian
Identification Credentials
30
May 2006
The
first of many adventures, RTP students
enter Smithsonian's Arts & Industries
Building headed to room 1488Aa to see
"Shirley" and obtain their Smithsonian
photo ID.
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Smithsonian
Identification Credentials
30
May 2006
The
Arts and Industries Building was the original
home of Smithsonian's National Museum.
Designed in a High Victorian style by
the Washington architectural firm of Cluss
and Schulze, it opened in 1881 in time
for the inaugural ball of President James
A. Garfield. The building's exhibition
halls are currently closed in preparation
for renovation and restoration but RTP
students couldn't help but admire the
grand architecture, high ceilings and
beautifully crafted marble floors and
wooden doors.
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Smithsonian
Identification Credentials
30
May 2006
The
excitement of anticipation, students waited
in line to be photographed for their Smithsonian
photo ID!
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Smithsonian
Identification Credentials
30
May 2006
Eager
anticipation waned as realization set
in of just how long it takes to process
20 photo ID badges. But, standing in line,
for almost everything, is a Washington
reality.
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Smithsonian
Identification Credentials
30
May 2006
Erin
Saupe and Alisa O'Connor sporting big
smiles, and their new purple Smithsonian
ID badge with thin blue "Internship
Programs" lanyard.
Among
the many perks of a Smithsonian photo
ID badge (e.g. one free ticket to see
an IMAX film each week, 20% discount at
Smithsonian shops) is a free ride on the
carrousel - often the first thing interns
do after receiving their ID badge.
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Smithsonian
Identification Credentials
30
May 2006
More
RTP smiling faces about to take their
first (of many) carrousel ride:
Jorge Alvarez, Sylvia Moses, Katie Faust,
Kim Vann, Caleb McMaan, Maya Strahl, Nick
Rasmussen and Bryan Cockrell.
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RTP
Moments
Jayme
Job, Sheena Ketchum, and Paige Hamilton
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Opening
Reception
30
May 2006
An
opening reception was held in the ARC
for advisors and students meet each other,
discuss project topics, and coordinate
events. The '06 RTP opening reception
may not have been the grand and catered,
in-the-Director's-Office all-Museum extravagent
event that traditionally has opened previous
RTP sessions, but the '06 students and
advisors enjoyed the simple snacks and
relaxed atmosphere - a great way to start
our summer!
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See
More . . . Event Photo Gallery from the Opening
Reception
Project
Orientation
30
May 2006
Matthew
Oreska will spend the summer investigating
vertebrate microfossils from the Cloverly
Formation, including tiny mammal teeth.
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Project
Orientation
30
May 2006
This
box contains a sampling of the fossil
specimens Matthew will be studying.
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Project
Orientation
Jayme
Job and Alisa O'Connor survey the pipestone
collection stored at the Museum Support
Center in Suitland, Maryland.
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Project
Orientation
30
May 2006
Megan
Ennis will be spending the summer investigating
a tuff ring recently discovered on Mars,
but here she gets her first look at the
meteorite collection with her research
advisor, Tim McCoy, who provided a quick
introduction to meteorite types including
this, very heavy, specimen of an iron
meteorite.
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Project
Orientation
30
May 2006
The
U.S. National Meteorite Collection is
one the largest and among the best museum-based
collections of meteorites in the world,
particularly strong in iron meteorites.
The collection includes over 40,000 meteorite
samples representing about 13,000 different
meteorites, including important named
specimens, as well as meteorites from
the Moon and Mars, including 7 of the
approximately 30 known Martian meteorites.
The collection has over 7,000 polished
thin sections and contains pieces of every
type of meteorite.
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Project
Orientation
30
May 2006
With
it's black encrusted exterior Megan correctly
guessed that this was a meteorite but
had difficulty determining it's origin.
She was overwhelmed to learn that she
was actually holding a piece of Mars!
Of the approximately 24,000 meteorites
that have been discovered on Earth, only
34 have been identified as originating
from the planet Mars - on her first day
at the Museum Megan got to hold one!
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Project
Orientation
30
May 2006
Jorge
Alvarez will study Permian age mudstone
beds (called redbeds) looking for signs
of insect damage on plant fossils. Before
beginning his survey some fossils needed
to be organized into the drawers.
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Project
Orientation
30
May 2006
Katie
Faust will work with Terry Chesser looking
at morphological and genetic variation
in six subspecies of bird, commonly called
the Long-winged Antwren, but known to
science as Myrmotherula
longipennis.
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Project
Orientation
30
May 2006
Found
in the Amazon basin, morphological variation
in Katie's specimens (subspecies of Myrmotherula
longipennis) is odvious but will the
molecular data, specifically sequences
from the mitochondrial gene ND3, offer
evidence for clinal variation within a
single taxon or offer supported evidence
for separation of subspecies?
Check
back in nine weeks for the results.
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Project
Orientation
30
May 2006
Tucked
away in the Natural History Building attic,
four floors above the Rotunda elephant,
Paige Hamilton (right) can be found working
with her advisors Erin Waxenbaum and Dave
Hunt learning how to look for and recognize
skeletal evidence of infection due to
tuberculosis on the ribs and spine of
individuals from the Terry Collection.
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Project
Orientation
30
May 2006
Nested
away in Natural History's West Wing, on
the Second floor amid the half a million
specimens in the Museum's Amphibian and
Reptile collection, Caleb McMahan will
spend his RTP summer studying differentiation
in populations of the gecko Hemidactylus
from Myanmar.
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Project
Orientation
30
May 2006
Three
floors above Caleb, on the Fifth floor
Maya Strahl will work with data from specimens
in the Compositae family to plot information
about biogeography in the Guyana shield
region of South America.
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ARC
Angels?
31
May 2006
Lynn
Copes, Maya Strahl, Alisa O'Connor and
Jayme Job
When asked what do you hope for most this
summer they answered, that the m&m
basket always be full, of course. . .
and that there be no blue ones.
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Anthropology
Day
2
June 2006
Anthropology
Day
Lecture
2
June 2006
RTP
lectures do not "teach" students
about a particular topic but instead provide
a forum for Smithsonian scientists to
share their research investigations and
provide insight into interesting topics
within a specific discipline.
Anthropology
Day featured the work of Dennis Stanford
who has devoted his career to studying
early American prehistory. Currently a
very "hot" topic in anthropology
- who were the first people in the Americas?
The work of Dennis and his colleagues
may re-write the text books.
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See
More . . . Event Photo Gallery from the Athropology
Lecture
Anthropology
Day
Stone Tools Tour
2
June 2006
Dennis
Stanford introduced RTP students to the
stone tool collection.
Locked
away in cabinets in his laboratory on
the Third Floor in the main part of the
building, not far from the overlook to
the rotunda elephant can be found the
stone tool collection, totaling approximately
10,000 objects. The collection is the
finest of its kind in the world and includes
actual specimens as well as casts made
from an apoxy resin designed to exactly
mimic the original.
The
collection includes Paleoindian stone
tools (those roughly older than 10,000
years), mainly from North America, used
by ice age hunters. The tools include
drills, scrapers, gravers, projectile
points and atlatl from the Clovis and
Folsom Period. A common misconception,
the collection does not include any "arrowhead"
points - these date to only about 2,000
years old.
Amid
the most interesting and famous, the collection
includes a cast set of pre-Clovis tools
from the Meadowcroft (Pennsylvania) and
Cactus Hill (Virginia) sites.
Considered
among the most beautiful set in the collection
are those from the "Drake Cache"
from Colorado. Many of these points are
made of Alibates, an exotic chert found
in the region of the Texas panhandle.
Cache sites are suspected burials where
several Clovis artifacts have been found
in a group. The
Drake Cache includes thirteen clovis points
found in a cultivated field in northeastern
Colorado. They were first discovered by
Orvel Drake in 1978 and have become known
as the Drake Cache, consisting of spear
points and ivory fragments of finished
projectile points.
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See
More . . . Event Photo Gallery from the Stone
Tools Tour
Anthropology
Day
Mummy Vault Tour & What the Bones
Can Tell Demo
2
June 2006
RTP
photo of the summer?
At least the most remembered
and the most mentioned!
Skeletal
remains, either those from an archeological
site, recent discovery, or forensic case
can provide exceptional detail about the
person, how they lived, and often how
they died. Examination of the bones can
often reveal the persons sex, age, ethnicity,
even characteristic such as left handed
or right handed, and diseases and ailments.
Using
cast models, Dave Hunt demonstrates the
key difference in the pelvis of males
and females - the female is positioned
wider to allow a fetus to pass through
the birthing canal.
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See
More . . . Event Photo Gallery from the Mummy
Tour & Demo
RTP
Moments
2
June 2006
Bryan
Coeckrell, Matthew Oreska, and Erin Saupe
Second visit to the carrousel.
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RTP
Moments
2
June 2006
Bryan
Cockrell
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RTP
Moments
2
June 2006
Erin
Saupe
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Scientist
Cliffs Field Trip Day
3
June 2006
Scientist
Cliffs Field Trip Day
3
June 2006
Students
search the interface between sand and
surf hoping to be the one who finds the
largest shark tooth. Who did? Click
here to find out.
Located
on the western side of the Chesapeake
Bay, the "Calvert Cliffs" were
formed over 15 million years ago when
all of Southern Maryland was covered by
a warm, shallow sea. They
are considered the best marine Miocene
(Miocene Epoch, 25 million to 6.5 million
years ago) deposit in the world.
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See
More . . . Event Photo Gallery from the Field
Trip
RTP
Moments
4
June 2006
Sunday
morning, sequestered in the ARC, Emily
Armgardt takes her Organic Chemistry final.
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RTP
Fun
Sara
Marsteller, Elisa Maldonado, Sheena Ketchum,
and Paige Hamilton
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Paleobiology
Day
Springer Collection Tour
5
June 2006
He
never met a crinoid he didn't like . .
. former RTP participant (RTP Class of
'96) now NMNH postdoctoral fellow, Dr.
Forest Gahn shares his enthusiasm for
crinoids and great appreciation and admiration
for the scientific and historical value
of the Springer Collection, named for
lawyer and scientist Frank Springer.
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See
More , , , Event Photo Gallery from the Springer
Collection Tour
Paleobiology
Day
Paleobotany Tour
5
June 2006
Erin
Saupe, Kim Vann, Sheena Ketchum, Alisa
O'Connor, and Megan Ennis
survey paleobotany specimens
Beginning
with Devonian land plants and concluding
with fossilized seeds and nuts, the paleoBOTANY
collections are sometimes overlook amid
the their glitzy neighbors the dinosaurs
but guided by current Paleobiology Department
Chair, Scott Wing, RTP students soon realized
that the plants tell the real biological
history of our planet and the Paleobotany
collections hold some fascinating specimens!
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See
More , , , Event Photo Gallery from the Paleobotany
Tour
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