Month: March 2011

News Briefs 1st Quarter 2011

News Briefs 1st Quarter 2011

Robert Hyman, LF ’93 has won won fifth prize in the CR+EW category in The World’s Rarest Birds photo competition for his photo of the critically endangered Honduran Emerald Hummingbird.

Robert Hyman's prize-winning photo

His photo was one selected as a winner from among 2000 entries, in The World’s Rarest Birds Photo Competition. The competition raises awareness of the rarest birds of the world and helps support their conservation through BirdLife International’s Preventing Extinctions Program.  Hyman’s photo has also been featured in The Mail, Telegraph and Metro newspapers in London, the French publication Natures et Animaux and on National Geographic’s web site. The World’s Rarest Birds book based on the competition will be published in 2012.

Elise Larsen, who received an ECWG Exploration and Field Research Grant  in 2010, reported on her work studying changes in the Mount St. Helens bird community following the catastrophic eruption of 1980 at the April 16, 2011 Cosmos Club dinner. She is a PhD  degree candidate at the University of Maryland, working in the Fagan Lab. Full story

ECWG member Frank R. Power MN ’93 discussed the colorful life of  Roy Chapman Andrews (1884 – 1960) during a brunch Sunday, March 6 at Maggiano’s Little Italy in Chevy Chase. Full story

Wade Davis, Hon ‘87, spoke on “The Wayfinders: Why Ancient Wisdom Matters in the Modern World” at the  Jan. 15, 2011 ECWG Dinner at the Cosmos Club. Full story

Sarah K. Yeomans FN ’07 spoke on “Medicine in the Ancient World: What we have learned from archaeology” at The Explorers Club Washington Group dinner at the Cosmos Club on Saturday Feb. 12, 2011.  Full story

ECWG board members elected at the ECWG annual meeting and dinner on December 4, 2010 were: Louise Burke MN ’86, Norman Cherkis FN ’91, Frank Power MN ’93, John C. Williams FN ’03, and Arnella Trent MN ’10.

Emory Kristof speaking at the December dinner. Don Gerson photo

Emory Kristof FN ’87, a highly renowned National Geographic photographer who is a pioneer in submersible and remotely operated vehicles, spoke at the December 4, 2010 dinner. He recounted his adventures as the designer of the innovative camera system and participation in the Titanic discovery and other famous historic wrecks.  He regaled the audience with tales and spectacular photos of unknown underwater animals and the deep sea hydrothermal vents discovered on his expeditions.

Dr. Hans-Dieter Sues FN ’09, Senior Scientist and Curator in the Department of Paleobiology at the National Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institution, received the prestigious Humboldt Research Award for 2011-2012.  Given by the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation to internationally renowned scientists and scholars, this award will provide support for him to concentrate on finishing research on his specialty of early Triassic dinosaurs.

Lew Toulmin MN ’04 and Robert Hyman LF ’93 were highlighted in a feature article in the September issue of Smithsonian Air and Space Magazine as co-founders of the Missing Aircraft Search Team (MAST).  The piece described the history of MAST beginning with the search for Steve Fossett MED ’92, and focusing on the recent underwater search for Gertrude Tompkins, the last missing WASP (Women Airforce Service Pilots) of WWII.  The piece described scientific and technological developments in the field science of search and rescue/recovery.

Lee Talbot in his red Ginnetta prepares to pass a Ford Escort to finish 2nd at Circuit Mont Tremblant, Quebec, on Sept. 25, 2010. Darlene Shields photo.

Explorers Club Medalist Dr. Lee Talbot MED ’57 received the 2010 Driver of the Year award from the Sportscar Vintage Racing Association, the premier organizer and sponsor of vintage racing.  Lee is the oldest driver in this category and has been professionally racing for 62 years.  This year he won 7 races and finished 2nd in two others.  The award is presented to the outstanding vintage racer who has achieved the goals of safety, consciousness, sportsmanship, and consistent performance.

Bob Atwater LF ’05 and Shellie Howard AN ’10 attended a week long survival course sponsored by BOSS (Boulder Outdoor Survival School) in Boulder, Utah.  This tough survival course taught creating friction fire with only sage wood, obtaining drinkable water from cow dung, sleeping through very cold nights without a tent or blankets, and many other related survival techniques.  Fortunately they both made it back and are still speaking to each other!


Talk on recovery of Mt. St. Helens birds

Talk on recovery of Mt. St. Helens birds

Elise Larsen, who received an ECWG Exploration and Field Research Grant  in 2010, reported on her work studying changes in the Mount St. Helens bird community following the catastrophic eruption of 1980 at the April 16, 2011 Cosmos Club dinner. She is a PhD  degree candidate at the University of Maryland, working in the Fagan Lab.

Elise Larsen on Mt. St. Helens. ©by the Fagan Lab

Bill Fagan, the Lab’s head and major professor for Larsen’s research, described the work of his lab, which includes spatial ecology, with an exploration of how landscape patchiness can influence population and community dynamics. The goal is to understand how spatial effects influence the assembly, collapse, and functioning of ecological systems.

Fagan and his students have conducted field work in the Eastern Steppes of Mongolia, the Antarctic Peninsula, and the starkly beautiful Pumice Plains of Mt. St. Helens, Washington. The research conducted by Dr. Fagan’s team helps to solve real-world conservation problems in the context of ecological theory.

Bill Fagan. ©by the Fagan Lab

Each April the ECWG invites young explorers who have received one of our student grants to report on their field research. Dr. Fagan’s students have received ECWG awards over the years, including Christina Kennedy and Sara Zeigler, our 2009 student speakers.

Larsen’s research involves field studies and models to study how humans and natural disturbances can affect animal population and community dynamics. Elise has previously studied how the MidAtlantic Bird  community responded to urbanization and has worked in the Antarctic Peninsula region to survey penguin and seabird populations.