Paleontological Society Workshop on Future Directions in Paleontology held on September 10-11, 2005 at the Department of Paleobiology, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C.

点击翻译按钮获取中文摘要

Over the past few decades it has become apparent that scientific progress is commonly bestattained where big problems are addressed by teams of scientists representing a widevariety of expertise. In response to these changes in the nature of scientific inquiry,the Paleontological Society proposes to organize a workshop accompanied by a series ofresearch forums that will focus on developing several new large-scale research initiativesthat have the broad support of the paleontological community. The proposed Future ResearchDirections in Paleontology (FRDP) Workshop, for which funds are requested, will include 25participants, and is to be held on September 10-11, 2005 at the Department ofPaleobiology, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C. This will be preceded by aresearch forum at the North American Paleontological Convention (June, 2005) in Halifax,Nova Scotia. The workshop will then be followed by two research forums at the GeologicalSociety of America Annual Meeting (October, 2005). The final product of this effort willbe a document of 30-40 pages which will contain short proposals for 5-6 larger integrativeprojects that require significant funding which the paleontological community shows strongsupport for initiating.What Is The Intellectual Merit of the Proposed Activity?Those engaged in paleontological research would agree that many challenges towards ourunderstanding of how life has evolved and existed on Earth would be best approached in acollaborative, integrative fashion. The FRDP Workshop and associated Research Forums willprovide a community-based platform where several of these most important research problemscan be addressed through development of research projects that will act as initiatives forthe paleontological community. In this way the Paleontological Society plans to lead theway towards the future of paleontological research.What Are The Broader Impacts of this Study?With the growth of science over the past few decades, many of the most important problemscan only be solved with interdisciplinary teams of scientists using the best availabletechnology. Such team-based activities will provide numerous opportunities for researchtraining and experience in forefront areas of science, particularly the growing number ofwomen and other under-represented groups which are currently entering the Earth sciences.