3RBC
Membership Meeting
Wednesday, December 9, 2009
Twenty Years of Ornithology In New Guinea with Andrew Mack of Powdermill Reserve
Andrew Mack is the first William and Ingrid Rea Conservation Biologist and Senior Scientist at the Powdermill Reserve, the field station of the Carnegie Museum of Natural History. There he oversees research and education on the 2200 acre reserve. Prior to moving to Pennsylvania in 2007, he lived in Papua New Guinea most of the past 20 years. He built one of two research stations he managed while directing an independent postgraduate training program. His research has spanned rainforest ecology, plant-animal interactions, biogeography, cassowaries, avian systematics, and conservation biology in more than 45 publications. He is most proud of the Papuan students he mentored who have gone on to form the PNG Institute of Biological Research. His PhD is from the University of Miami (1995). Prior to obtaining his Bachelors Degree he was Collections Manager of birds at the Academy of Natural Sciences in Philadelphia. He has also done field work in Mexico, Costa Rica, Ecuador, Guyana, Bolivia, Indonesia, and Malaysia.
The meeting will be held at the Phipps Garden Center, 1059 Shady Avenue in Shadyside. Doors will open at 6:30 PM for socializing, the business meeting begins at 7:30, and the program starts at 8.
If you're bringing anything to eat or drink to one of our meetings, please note that Phipps Garden Center, the location of our membership meetings, now prohibits the use of most plastic and paper plates, napkins, water bottles, cups, and utensils (knives, forks and spoons) etc. They are "going green." They said they are requiring that only "eco-friendly paper products" be used at the facility. "The use of water bottles, paper and plastics is not permitted." The materials they list are fully biodegradable. For the time being, if you bring anything, please put it in a reusable container/serving plate, that you can take home.
The Garden Center is at 1059 Shady Avenue behind the Pittsburgh Center for the Arts at Fifth and Shady Avenues. Parking is 25 cents an hour in a metered lot, and more parking is available on Shady Avenue. In addition, Beechwood Boulevard, a block east of Shady, has free parking and is a short walk through Mellon Park to the Garden Center. Detailed directions are on the Phipps website: http://www.phipps.conservatory.org/directions.htm.
