Joel Cracraft is curator in charge of the Department of Ornithology
here at the museum. He was one of the key intellectual lights to the
Hall of Biodiversity.
Eleanor Sterling is the director of the Center of Biodiversity
and Conservation here at the museum. The Center has been doing amazing
work in the past few years, not only in terms of research, but also
in terms of public education and professional convocations, such as
the recent biodiversity symposium that examined urban sprawl and biodiversity.
Eleanor is also a world traveler, having spent a good 15 years in
Africa, Asia and Latin America. I want to know where I sign up for
that job as well. One of the reasons I got into film was to do exactly
that. So far, I spend a lot of time in offices in front of computers.
Andy Dobson is a professor at Princeton University in the Department
of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology. He's published wonderful books,
but I know him most closely through this project and his wonderful
work on behalf of Life in the Balance. Andy has made himself so available,
not only to me, but especially to Bayley Silleck, who has been - if
I could use a rather weird metaphor - picking his brain for several
years now. He's made himself very accessible to us. That's very important
on a project like this.
Ross MacPhee, who I've spoken to on the phone but never met
in person until today, is curator of the Department of Vertebrate
Biology here at the museum. Ross has curated a number of exhibitions,
most recently the Ernest Shackleton exhibition, which some of you
may have seen. It's going to Seattle. It's been to Washington. It's
going to Texas somewhere. And I believe there's an IMAX film that's
in production.
At any rate, these are the people that have generously given of their
time this morning, and so I will turn it over to them.
