Support of Student Participation in North American Paleontological Convention (NAPC-VI); June, 1996; Washington, D. C

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The North American Paleontological Convention is a quadrennial gathering of paleontologists from a variety of disciplines. It is supported by the paleontological group headquartered in North America, but is open to all who are interested in paleontology. The meeting planned for June 1996 in Washington, DC, will be the sixth NAPC, and the first to be held on the East Coast. Each previous gathering has been judged by those who participated as an excellent scientific event. One aim of NAPC is to allow specialists who would not otherwise normally be in contact to meet and exchange ideas. For example, micropaleontologists and vertebrate paleontologists have different professional societies which meet at different times, yet some members of these two group work on fossils from the same age rock. Based on past experience, the Organizing Committee for NAPC-VI expects that about 500 professionals will attend and interact for three days. It is the view of the Organizing Committee that the continued interest of students is critical to the health of the field. Not only will students m aintain the study of past life, they are the ones who will provide fresh approaches and examine old fossils with new eyes. NAPC provides an outstanding educational opportunity to obtain a concentrated amount of paleontological information from talks and poster presentations without the other distractions presented at a general geological meeting. It also allows them the ready opportunity to meet with leaders in the field and to discuss their research in progress, both formally and informally, in a venue not provided by a national or regional geologic meeting. The grant proposal consists of two components. The first would allow for a lower registration fee for all students who plan to attend. Based on past experience, the Organizing Committee expect that about 100-150 students will attend. The second component of the grant would consist of a small grant of fixed amount to a limited number of students to facilitate their attendance. Grantees would be selected on the basis of merit, but appropriate attention would be paid to the need to support minority groups and women.