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Curatorial staff highlight research and fascinating discoveries at 31st Annual ROM Research Colloquium Friday, February 5, 2010
On Friday, February 5, 2010, the Royal Ontario Museum (ROM) welcomes all to Discoveries Around the World, the 31st Annual ROM Research Colloquium and Vaughan Lecture, a stimulating one-day event highlighting the ROM’s ongoing research and recent discoveries. Fifteen-minute presentations delivered by ROM curatorial staff feature a wide range of topics, including Art Deco fashion and theatre design, 505-million year old fossils, the First Emperor of China and the Terracotta Army, the geology of Ontario’s Killarney Provincial Park and the magical healing properties of a spouted saucer from Central Asia. This free program begins at 9:15 am in the ROM’s Signy & Cléophée Eaton Theatre. Attendees should enter through the Presidents Choice Entrance on the south side of the building. Museum admission is not included
New Directions in Dinosaur Research featured as this year’s annual Vaughan Lecture, takes place at 5:30 pm. Delivered Dr. David Evans, Associate Curator, Vertebrate Paleontology, Department of Natural History the lecture delves into the ROM’s rapidly expanding field of dinosaur research, newest discoveries and fascinating field projects taking place internationally.
COLLOQUIUM SCHEDULE: (A more detailed schedule of presentation abstracts is available upon request; lectures are subject to change.
9:00 am- Doors Open
9:15 am- Opening Remarks
Mark Engstrom, Deputy Director, Collections and Research
9:30 am- On Healing Magic Again: A Dragon-spouted Saucer Made of Nephrite
Karin Ruehrdanz, Curator, Islamic Decorative Arts, Department of World Cultures
9:45 am- Founder’s Fossil: Sir Edmund Walker and the Burgess Shale Connection
David Rudkin, Assistant Curator (Invertebrate Paleontology), Department of Natural History
10:00 am- Sustaining Ancestors: Architectural Posts from Africa
Silvia Forni, Curator (Ethnology), Department of World Cultures
10:15 am- Coffee Break
10:45 am- Illustrating Fashion: The Art Deco Designs of George Barbier
Arthur Smith, Head, Library & Archives
11:00 am- South American Safari: Adaptive Radiation of Bats in Savannas
Burton Lim, Assistant Curator (Mammalogy), Department of Natural History
11:15 am- Investigating a Network of American Furniture Makers in Montreal ca. 1790-1820
Ross Fox, Associate Curator (Canadian Furniture), Department of World Cultures, ROM
11:30 am- The Auto-fluorescence of Asian Lacquer
Marianne Webb, Senior Conservator
11:45 am- Lunch Break
1:00 pm- Greenwich Garnitures in Relation to the Greenwich Anime of William Herbert, 1st Early of Pembroke, a Focal Point in Our Arms and Armour Collection
Corey Keeble, Curator (European Decorative Arts), Department of World Cultures
1:15 pm- Rapid Radiations Entangle the Branches of the Avian Tree of Life
Oliver Haddrath & Allan Baker, Department of Natural History, ROM
1:30 pm- Ragamala Paintings: Visualizing Music Through Paint
Deepali Dewan, Curator (South Asian Arts and Culture), Department of World Cultures
1:45 pm- The Remarkable Geology of Killarney Provincial Park
Vincent Vertolli, Assistant Curator (Geology), Department of Natural History
2:00 pm- Coffee Break
2:30 pm- Coral, Rock, or Wood: A Reconsideration of the Iconography of a Motif in the East Wall of the ROM’s Pair of Chinese Daoist Murals
Ka Bo Tsang, Assistant Curator (Chinese Textiles and Paintings), Department of World Cultures
2:45 pm- Swimming with Dinosaurs: DNA Reveals that American Cichlid Fishes Date Back to the Late Cretaceous
Hernán López-Fernádez, Associate Curator of Freshwater Fishes, Department of Natural History
3:00 pm- Chasing the First Urban Dwellers: Work at Hamoukar, Northeastern Syria
Clemens Reichel, Associate Curator of Ancient Near Eastern Archaeology, Department of World Cultures
3:15 pm- Broadening the Search for Burgess Shale-type Deposits in the Canadian Rockies
Jean Bernard-Caron, Associate Curator, Invertebrate Paleontology, Department of Natural History
3:30 pm- Coffee Break
4:00 pm- French River Rapids
Kenneth Lister, Assistant Curator, Arctic, Subarctic & Native Watercraft, Department of WorldCultures
4:15 pm- Oskenonton’s Canoes
Trudy Nicks, Curator (Ethnology), Department of World Cultures
4:30 pm- Reflections of the First Emperor in the ROM Chinese Gallery
Chen Shen, Bishop White Curator of Far Eastern Archaeology (Ancient Chinese Archaeology), Department of World Cultures
4:45 pm- A Neolithic “Land of the Dead” in Syria
Robert Mason, Database Technician, Archaeological Science, Department of World Cultures
5:00 pm- VAUGHAN LECTURE
New Directions in Dinosaur Research
Dr. David Evans, Associate Curator, Vertebrate Paleontology, Department of Natural History
The ROM has a rich history of dinosaur research that goes back almost a century. The ROM dinosaur research program is currently expanding at an unprecedented rate, with many new and exciting lab and field projects that are taking place across the globe. From Mongolia to South Africa to the Canadian Arctic and Alberta, Associate Curator and dinosaur specialist, Dr. David Evans will highlight some of the ROM’s latest field projects and newest dinosaur discoveries.