The Academy's Annual Meeting and Awards Banquet is
one of the premier events of the year, featuring:
- A program that typically includes a world
class speaker. This year, we have Dr. Brendan Kelly, of the Office of Polar
Programs at NSF. Brendan, a marine biologist, uses a trio of seal-sniffing
Labrador retrievers to locate ringed seals at their snow-covered breathing
holes. He learned how to use the Labradors to find ringed seals from an Inuit
hunter in the Northwest Territories of Canada. Brendan claims that the dogs are
the co-program managers; Brendan himself is there only to take notes. Note
however, that Brendan -- not the dogs -- will be making the
presentation.
- An awards ceremony that on more than one
occasion has anticipated a later Nobel prize.
- A venue (Meadowlark Botanical Gardens) that
has been voted among the top three event locations in suburban Washington DC,
by the Washingtonian magazine. The building features a two-thousand square foot
skylight, an indoor stream and fountain. Glass walls look out on The Atrium's
outside gardens which showcase some of the best ornamental collections at
Meadowlark.