Influential, honorable and environmentally sound: SI staff are racking up the awards
May 8, 2014. Have you reached a milestone, received an award or conquered the world (at least your little corner of it) lately? Let us know at torch@si.edu. We want to toot your horn for you! Be sure to include your contact information and a picture as an attachment.
National Zoo
Kathleen Brader, senior bird keeper at the National Zoo was named an Honorary Member of the New Zealand Order of Merit. She received the honor for her kiwi-conservation efforts. During her 25 years at the Zoo, she has successfully hatched and raised six kiwi, created a kiwi education campaign, chaired the Species Survival Program and written numerous publications on protecting the endangered bird.
Kathleen Brader with the Governor-General of New Zealand, Te Kawana Tianara o Aotearoa
Recently, Brader oversaw a project which collected kiwi feathers to be repatriated to New Zealand. The feathers were ceremonially presented to New Zealand Ambassador to the United States Mike Moore in September 2012 before being returned to New Zealand. The feathers were eventually used in the weaving of traditional Maori cloaks. The Smithsonian now collects feathers from zoos in the US and Europe and sends them to Maori elders in New Zealand each year.
Office of the Chief Information Officer
Martin Beckman
Martin Beckman, director of IT Operations, was named one the “Federal 100” by Federal Computer Week magazine, an annual list of IT professionals who are making a difference in the world of Federal IT. Viewers streaming footage of the National Zoo’s panda cub Bao Bao might not know it, but they have Beckman to thank for the quality and reliability of that video feed. His modernization plan transformed the Smithsonian’s IT infrastructure, increased bandwidth and reduced congestion, making it possible for our museums to handle more than 100 million visitors to their websites. The improvements also accelerated the digitization of museum collections and helped lower costs by $1 million a year. Beckman’s work is crucial to transforming the Smithsonian into a digitally connected institution that reaches virtual visitors worldwide.
Günter Waibel, Adam Metallo and Vincent Rossi, the 3D team in OCIO’s Digitization Program Office, have been nominated for Samuel J. Heyman Service to America Medals (also known as the “Sammies.”) The medal recognizes a federal employee for a significant contribution to the nation in activities related to citizen services (including economic development, education, health care, housing, labor and transportation).
Adam Metallo, Günter Waibel and Vincent Rossi
As 3-D imaging and printing advance from science fiction to reality, Waibel, director of the Digitization Program office and team members Rossi and Metallo are deploying these cutting-edge technologies to make some of the Smithsonian’s immense holdings available throughout the United States and around the world. They have created vivid 3-D scans of historical treasures such as the Wright Brothers’ first airplane, life-mask casts of Abraham Lincoln’s face, a 1,500-year-old Buddha sculpture, Amelia Earhart’s flight suit, a woolly mammoth and a prehistoric fossilized whale.
At any given time, less than 1 percent of the Smithsonian’s 137 million items are on public display. The goal is to make 10 percent of this collection accessible online through digitized photos, text and audiovisual files. Digitization in 3-D requires significantly more time and resources than 2-D digitization, and the Smithsonian is currently exploring how to increase the output with this technology.
Smithsonian Enterprises
The Smithsonian.com web series “Weird Science,” in production for only a few months, has won a 2014 Telly Award for online programming. Founded in 1978, The Telly Awards honor excellence in non-broadcast video, television programming and TV commercials. The Telly is one of the most sought-after awards by industry leaders, from large international firms to small ad agencies. With the quality of non-broadcast productions and programming on the rise, along with the world of online video continuing to rapidly evolve, competition for this recognition is heated. “Weird Science” is the first award-winning programming effort from the new production team at Smithsonian magazine.
Smithsonian Gardens
Smithsonian Gardens has been designated a Certified Audubon Cooperative Sanctuary, the first property in the District of Columbia and only the 62nd property in the world to be so certified. We have been working on this certification for about three years. To achieve certification, custodians of a property must demonstrate a high degree of environmental quality in wildlife and habitat management, water quality and conservation, resource management, environmental planning, and outreach and education.
The Audubon Cooperative Sanctuary Program provides information and guidance to help organizations and businesses preserve and enhance wildlife habitat and protect natural resources. Parks, schools, and other properties in the U.S., Africa, Australia, Canada, Central America, Europe, and Southeast Asia have achieved certification in the program.
Mary Livingston Ripley Garden. (Photo by Eric Long)
Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory
Time magazine has named John Kovac of the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics one of the 100 most influential people. Brian Greene writes for the magazine:
“Some 14 billion years ago, a violent burst of antigravity drove space to expand at a blistering rate that momentarily exceeded the speed of light. Or at least that’s what happened according to the so-called inflationary theory. But is the theory right?
“If the results announced in March by a team headed by John Kovac of the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics hold up, we’ll have the most convincing confirmation yet. Kovac’s experiment involved observations of what’s known as microwave background radiation, in search of ripples in space-time called gravitational waves, which inflationary theory predicts.
“Kovac and his team report detecting the ripples through an iconic swirling pattern in the microwave radiation, which may provide the smoking gun for the inflationary model. We theorists were bowled over. If the results are confirmed, they will join a handful of breakthroughs over the past century that have profoundly shaped our understanding of how the universe began.”
John Kovac
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Posted: 8 May 2014
