The Whitney Building, of the American Museum of Natural History, constructed in 1932, consists of eight floors used for research activities, research specimen storage and public exhibits. In 1971, half of the sixth floor was renovated as a research facility, housing the Department of Ornithology. Since the Museum has possession of the largest collection of birds in the Western Hemisphere, it is the goal of the Department to develop a premier research and training program in systematic ornithology by upgrading current facilities to increase available research space and create modern laboratories for ongoing studies in molecular systematics and evolution. Concurrently, the Museum is establishing a Center for Biodiversity and Conservation that will expand the Museum's research and educational commitment to the study and preservation of biological diversity. The renovation will facilitate the development of a critical component of the Center's research and training program, the capability to apply modern molecular systematic methods to conservation biology. Present research facilities used by the department to conduct ongoing investigative projects cannot support modern molecular research. Serious inadequacies, such as no climate-controlled and filter air, lack of purified water, poor space configuration and no safe area to use radioactive chemicals are some of the impediments researchers and students confront when performing modern molecular research. This award will provide support to assist the American Museum of Natural History in its efforts to modernize the research facilities for the Department of Ornithology. Once the renovations are completed, the potential to increase research productivity, interdisciplinary research and graduate and postgraduate training programs in molecular systematics and conservation genetics will be attainable.
