Dear STRI Team,

As we ring in the New Year and reflect on a remarkable 2024, I want to express my heartfelt gratitude for your unwavering dedication and teamwork. This year has been filled with incredible achievements, and it has truly taken the passion and dedication of everyone to get where we are today. 

In June, we celebrated a century of tropical biology research on Barro Colorado Island (BCI) with over 500 alumni. This milestone was not just a celebration of our past but a look forward to the next 100 years. Special thanks to everyone at STRI who worked tirelessly to make the BCI 100 celebration such a huge success, and to our dedicated scientists and our generous alumni for their contributions to BCI's past and future.

And thanks to the collaborative efforts of dozens of scientists working with our lead editors, Helene Muller-Landau and Joe Wright, the first two volumes of "The First 100 Years of Research on Barro Colorado" are now available online. Weighing in at over 800 pages and 98 chapters, this monumental work is a testament to our commitment to sharing knowledge and advancing science.

Speaking of advances, our scientists made groundbreaking discoveries this year. They named a new species of cloud forest cat, a new species of dinosaur, an ancient freshwater turtle and an extinct mangrove tree, a horned beetle from Brazil and six new tree species only found in Panama and Colombia. 

Our discoveries were shared in the leading science publications of our time: Science, Nature, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences and are remarkable in their breadth: from innovative uses of molecular biology to understand how new species evolve, to how climate change affects forest function, to how our relationship with the place we live affects our well-being.

And speaking of global science, our ForestGEO program continues to set the gold standard for distributed forest science. This year, the ForestGEO team, working with collaborators around the world, leveraged their unprecedented understanding of the world’s forests to launch GEO-TREES, which will build a global network of plots to calibrate and validate carbon measurements in any forest, in any condition, anywhere.  Information from the GEO-TREES network will provide and be crucial in supporting investment in forest restoration and forest protection around the world.

Our teams also worked tirelessly to arrange international events, taking Smithsonian science to global conferences, including the climate Conference of Parties (COP28) in Dubai and the Biodiversity Conference of Parties (COP 16) in Cali, Colombia. These are the single most important gatherings of world leaders focused on climate change and biodiversity loss, and our presence allowed us to share our research and build collaborations. 

We’re working with our Advisory Board and Fundación Smithsonian to introduce ourselves and our mission to new international audiences.  We were honored to welcome Princess Angela of Liechtenstein as the new STRI Advisory Board Chair, and Mirei Endara as President of Fundación Smithsonian. They bring fresh perspectives and enthusiasm to all our initiatives and are working closely with the exceptional outgoing chairs of both these bodies. 
And last, but absolutely not least, we continue to broaden the impact of education and outreach at STRI, engaging with local and global communities. Our new educational programs and public exhibits, like the butterfly dome at Punta Culebra Nature Center, inspire the next generation of scientists and conservationists.  

The Q-Bus, which takes STRI science to public school children throughout Panama including the indigenous comarcas, now carries resilience-based lessons onboard.

In 2025, we will continue to be a beacon for tropical biology, leveraging our unique location in Panama. We have exciting plans, including breaking ground for a new schoolhouse in Gamboa and a new marine research lab at Naos. Our commitment to research, conservation, and education remains steadfast.

Thank you for your dedication and hard work. Together, we have achieved remarkable things, and I look forward to what we will accomplish in the coming year.

Warmest wishes for a happy and healthy New Year!

Sincerely, Josh Tewksbury Director, STRI