During the reporting year, the Research Staff was joined by Alex Lazarian (from Cambridge and University of Texas). Neil Tyson was named the Frederick P. Rose Director of the Hayden Planetarium. The following Research Staff members completed their appointments in the department and accepted new positions: N. Ellman (Yale) and S. Malhotra (IPAC).
Honors were conferred upon several members of the department. Martin Schwarzschild was elected Foreign Member of the Royal Society, London. Michael Strauss was awarded the Newton Lacy Pierce Prize of the AAS ``for his leadership in work on cosmic structure''. Ed Jenkins was elected Vice President of the AAS.
Visitors staying over one month included: P. Artymowicz (Stockholm Observatory), P. Brand (Royal Observatory, Edinburgh), T. Chmaj (Copernicus Center, Warsaw), L. Guzzo (Observatorio Astronomico di Brera, Merate), A. Jorissen (Brussels), M. Kirage (Warsaw University Observatory), J. Kaluzny (Copernicus Center, Warsaw), T. Padmanabhan (IUCAA, Pune), M.-G. Park (Korea), D. Ryu (Korea), and R. Wijers (Cambridge).
The Spring Lecturer was George Preston from the Carnegie Institution, who presented a series of lectures on the stellar content of the Milky Way.