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[[underline]]New Director, National Museum of Natural History[[/underline]]

Mr.s Ripley announced that Dr. Porter M. Kier has been named Director of the Smithsonian Institution's National Museum of Natural History.  The appointment became effective January 15, 1973.

Dr. Kier succeeds Dr. Richard S. Cowan who will resume his research career as a Senior Scientist on the Museum staff.  Dr. Cowan, 52, had served in the Director's post with distinction since 1965.

The new Director served as Chairman of the Department of Paleobiology from 1967 through 1972.  A paleontologist who joined the NMNH staff as a curator in 1957, Dr. Kier has won recognition within the field of museum administration and the paleontology profession.  He is the current President of the Paleontological Society.

The Smithsonian was indeed fortunate to have someone with Dr. Kier's qualifications already on the staff to succeed Dr. Cowan.  Dr. Kier is highly respected by his colleagues both within the Smithsonian and in the scientific community at large.  We are delighted that he will be taking on this new responsibility and confident that he will continue his outstanding record of service.

Dr. Kier, 44, earned a B. A. (1950) and M. A. (1951) from the University of Michigan and a Ph. D. (1957) from Cambridge University, which he attended as a Fulbright scholar.

Prior to coming to the Smithsonian, he served for two years in the U. S. Army and one year in a teaching post at the University of Houston.  His research interest is in both fossil and living echinoids (sea urchins), on which he has published a large number of monographs and other works.  In 1968, he studied echinoids in England on a Guggenheim fellowship.

He is married to the former Mary E. Lavely and has two children, William, 16, and Elizabeth, 14.  He lives at 5104 Bradford Drive, Annandale, Virginia.