COLLABORATION IN BASIC SCIENCE AND ENGINEERING (COBASE)

Dr. Richard Heard (center), University of Southern Mississippi professor of coastal sciences, accepts a Centennial Medal from the Romanian Museum of Natural History in recognition of scientific contributions to the museum's work. Museum scientist Dr. Modest Gutu (right) presents the medal and Dr. Jay Grimes, director of the USM Institute of Marine Sciences, displays the honorary diploma awarded to Heard. (USM-IMS Photo by Linda Skupien)

Richard Heard hosted Modest Gutu of Romania for ten days in October 1999. During Gutu’s stay in the U.S., Gutu and Heard were able to jointly examine much tanaidacean material housed at the Gulf Coast Research Laboratory (GCRL). This material had been collected from the American Mediterranean (Gulf of Mexico, Caribbean, and Bahama region), the Pacific coast of Costa Rica, and the western continental shelf off Australia. Tom Hansknecht, a potential doctoral student who is interested in the apseudomorph tanaidaceans, joined them in this undertaking. Between the three researchers, they examined approximately 1000 lots representing over 5000 specimens. In these collections they discovered numerous new taxa, including a new family and two new genera plus many new species. Heard also had the opportunity to show Gutu some of the marine habitats of the central Gulf of Mexico, which included a trip to West Florida (Pensacola area) to search for several of the endemic coastal tanaidacean species known to inhabit this region. A paper entitled "The Description of a New Species, the Representative of a New Genus and a New Family, from the Australian Water," was presented in December at the Yearly Scientific Session of Gutu’s home institution, the Grigore Antipa National Museum of Natural History. In December 1999, Heard received the prestigious "Diploma and Jubilee" gold medal from this same museum. The two colleagues have also modified a proposal for a NSF PEET grant and plan on resubmitting it in March 2001.