Dinofest '96

[Mikiel <Mikiel@ASU.Edu>]

For those of you who are desperate for something to do from the 18th to 
the 21st of April, Arizona State University is hosting Dinofest '96.

Exhibits include "A Walk Through Time" (consisting of dinosaurs and other 
fossils from all seven continents from the Precambrian to the last ice 
age), and Universal Studios' Jurassic Park exhibit will be on display.

There will also be a "Dinofeast" banquet on the 20th, which will feature 
foods you could have actually eaten during the Mesozoic.  (I'm told we'll 
have an "iridium layer" cake, among other things.)  The banquet costs $50.

Other events include a public forum on science policy and education, an 
interactive television panel discussion on dinosaurs, and a natural 
history art exhibit.

I have a preliminary list of speakers (though this schedule is likely to 
change in some aspects, so don't plan your life around it) for the 
symposium, beginning with Stephen Jay Gould on the 18th.  Each of the 
following sessions is scheduled to contain a short discussion period 
about mid-way through the talks, and a second discussion at the end of 
the session.  Please keep in mind that this symposium is aimed at the 
general public as part of the educational outreach program, so even 
people like us who have virtually no interest in dinosaurs can understand 
what's going on :-).  Lastly, registration for the symposium is $65, but 
you can get the banquet and the symposium together for $100.
        
April 19
Historical Insights and New Discoveries.  Speakers will be Brent 
Breithaupt, Craig Derstler, Ned Colbert, Wade Miller, Jack McIntosh, Jose 
Bonaparte, David Burnham, & Pete Larson.

Dinosaur Physiology, Biochemistry and Growth.  Speakers will be Mary 
Schweitzer, Frank Paladino, Richard Hengst, Reese Barrick, & Claudia Barreto.

Looking at Dinosaurs Without Their Clothes.  Speakers will be Greg Paul, 
George Callison, Don Lessem, Don Glut, William Mason, David Alden, 
Stephen Czerkas, Jim Kirkland, Linda Deck, Robert Walters, & Ken Carpenter.

Dinosaurs, Fossils, Little and Big Kids, Teachers, Publishers, and 
Museums.  Speakers will be Karol Bartlett, Dinah Zike, Darlene Stille, Jo 
Wixom, Martin Lockley, Eugenie Scott, Japheth Boyce, Alan Goldstein, & 
Pat Leiggi.

April 20
Those Magnificant Dinosaurs.  Speakers will be Jack Horner, Peter Dodson, 
Michael Morales, David Rosenberg, John Long, Scott Sampson, Dave 
Weishampel, Ralph Chapman, & Pete Larson.

They Populated the Earth; Regional Faunas and Floras, Pt. I, North 
America.  Speakers will be Nicholas Fraser, William Gallagher, David 
Schwimmer, Thomas Lehman, Louis Jacobs, Michael Triebold, Dale Russell, 
Thomas Rich, David Thayer, Rene Hernandez, & C.M. Gonzales-Leon.

Dinosaur Eggs, Nests, and Proto-Chickens.  Speakers will be Karl Hirsch, 
Terry Manning, Phil Currie, Ashok Sahni, Bob Bakker, John Ostrom, Larry 
Martin, & Sankar Chatterjee.

They Populated the Earth; Regional Faunas and Floras, Pt. II, Elsewhere.  
Speakers will be Manuel Iturralde-Vinent, David Elliot, William Hammer, 
Patricia Vickers-Rich, Thomas Rich, Catherine Forster, Elizabeth Gomani, 
Dong Zhiming, and Mark Norell.

April 21
Dirt, Rocks, Plants In and Out of Dinosaurs, Tracks and Postures.  
Speakers will be G.J. Retallack, Lenore Tedesco, Darren Grocke, Ralph 
Taggart, Karen Chin, Donald Mikulic, Martin Lockley, Bruce Rothchild, 
Ralph Chapman, Peter Dodson, & David Burnham.

Other Aspects of the World of the Dinosaurs.  Speakers will be Garry 
Rosenberg, Carl Koch, Neal Larson, Erle Kauffman, & Richard Lund.

Extinction Revisited.  Speakers will be Warren Allmon, Peter Ward, Robert 
Sloan, William Zinsmeister, J. David Archibald, Joseph Hartman, Peter 
Sheehan, & Robert Sullivan.

A commerative volume is supposed to be published later on, but details on 
that are still pretty sketchy.

Finally, for more information you can contact ASU's public events 
department at (602)965-5062.

On a personal note, I'd also like to like to suggest that anyone on this 
list who plans to attend the symposium (or any other dinosaur fanatic) is 
welcome to join me and anyone else I can round up to shoot the breeze 
about paleontology (or grad schools or whatever) over beers at a bar just 
south of campus.  I'd like to do this each night after the symposium, but 
obviously that may not be feasible.  If there are any takers, just let me 
know!

-Mikiel