paleonet URGENT: Palaeontology in Berlin

["Kenshu Shimada" <kshimada@xxxxxxxxxx>]

Hi everybody,

Below, you will find an additional message from Prof. Schultze.  Regardless of your status (professional/student/armature paleontologists), your experience with the collection/people in the museum, and your expertise (plants/invertebrates/vertebrates/else), please do your best to putting letters of support together on behalf of the Institute (and to show that you really care about the future of our scientific field--which is especially important for our present and future students).  As indicated in Prof. Schultze's message, the letters must be sent to the three German authorities before May 31, 2002.

Kenshu
____________________________
>>> "Schultze, H.P." <H-P.Schultze@MUSEUM.HU-Berlin.de> 05/27/02 04:02AM >>>
>>>During these past few days, MANY letters in support of palaeontology and of the Institute of Palaeontology, at the Museum fuer Naturkunde in Berlin, have been sent to the German authorities.  Our staff and myself are grateful for your gestures of support.  These expressions of collaboration and encouragement for palaeontology and our institute are aiding in saving palaeontology and the Professorship of Palaeozoology. Unfortunately, we are still in need of more letters, e-mails and/or faxes in favor of maintaining palaeontology as an independent division of scientific study.After the reaction of the scientific community in support of palaeontology, the President of the Humboldt University has stated that he may advertise the position of Professor of Palaeozoology (= Director of the Institute of Paleontology) as Professor of Palaeozoology (with direction to Systematics, Biogeography and MOLECULAR BIOLOGY).  Although this may sound as a
compromising gesture, indeed it is not:  The Expert Commission cleverly continues to minimize the importance of palaeontology as a separate field of study via the manipulative advertisement of this position.  It is imperative that the position be advertised excluding molecular biology.  The consequences are two-fold:  the position risks being offered to someone with little (if any) expertise in paleontology, and the extinction of
palaeontology at the Museum fuer Naturkunde in Berlin is impending.  Letters, e-mails and/or faxes of supports are the only means we have to fight this situation - the more letters, e-mails/faxes received, the better chance we have of saving the professorship of Palaeozoology and the Institut of Palaeontology at the Museum fuer Naturkunde, Berlin.->   Regrettably, they must be sent before May 31, 2002.  On this day, the President of the University and the President of the ExpertCommission will inform the museum staff about their decisions concerning the
future of the Museum für Naturkunde in Berlin and of the Institute of Palaeontology.  Please continue to fax and/or email your support to the German authorities.  Thanking each and everyone of you for your collaborations and support.

Sincerely,
Hans-Peter Schultze
Director, Institute of Palaeontology
E-mail: hans-peter.schultze@rz.hu-berlin.de
Fax: (49) 30 2093 8868 (PLEASE, FOR MY RECORDS SEND ME A COPY OF YOUR SUPPORT LETTER.  THANKS.)



________________________________
Kenshu Shimada, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor
Environmental Science Program
   and Department of Biological Sciences
DePaul University
2325 N. Clifton Avenue
Chicago, IL 60614, USA
        AND
Research Associate in Paleontology
Sternberg Museum of Natural History
Fort Hays State University
Hays, KS 67601, USA