John Davis, an accomplished American art historian, has been named Under Secretary for Museums and Research/Provost, overseeing the Smithsonian's 19 museums and nine research centers, the National Zoo, the Office of Fellowships and Internships, the Smithsonian Archives and Smithsonian Libraries.
The Smithsonian has surpassed its goal of raising $1.5 billion in the largest fundraising campaign ever set by an American cultural institution. At the Board of Regents public forum today, Regent Barbara Barrett announced that the Smithsonian Campaign has raised $1.56 billion fourteen months ahead of schedule. The campaign ends in December 2017.
The Smithsonian is partnering with the Victoria and Albert Museum (V&A) to establish a permanent gallery in a new cultural complex in the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park in the site of the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games.
Hans Sues, chair of the department of paleobiology at the National Museum of Natural History, has discovered a new dinosaur species, Timurlengia euotica, which was the size of a horse and lived about 90 million years ago. The finding fills in a 20 million-year gap in the fossil record and helps document the evolution of the Tyrannosaurus Rex.
Secretary David J. Skorton has launched the Smithsonian Secretary’s Scholars to recruit and hire 40 of the world’s most promising scholars.
“This is my highest priority,” Skorton says. “For all our treasures, the Smithsonian’s greatest assets are our scholars. They perform the research, analyze data, interpret our collections in history, science and art and present their work to the public. Meet any one of our curators, scientists, historians, educators and researchers, and you will understand how vital it is we invest in our scholars.”
