Introduction In the Spring of 2001 the Garden established the Center for Conservation and Sustainable Development and hired Roger E. McManus, formerly President of the Center for Marine Conservation, as the Center’s director. The goal of the Center is to promote efficient use of the vast and constantly growing storehouse of scientific information gathered by the Garden’s researchers to benefit conservation and sustainable development internationally. In concert with the research division and other divisions of the Garden, the Center will work to a) provide scientific data to communities and decision makers concerned with conservation; b) support policy initiatives related to conservation; c) expand the Garden’s programs of botanical training for conservation to strengthen scientific capacity in other countries; and d) develop community organizations in the countries where Garden scientists conduct research that can serve as anchors for research, conservation, and sustainable development activities. In addition to McManus, the Center’s staff includes Kathy Hurlbert, Administrative Coordinator, and Jason Bradford, Coordinator for the Center’s Global Change Research Program. In 2001 Peter H. Raven celebrated 30 years as Director of the Garden, a period marked by phenomenal growth in research and other programs. From the early 1970s the herbarium has grown from 2.3 million to over 5.1 million mounted specimens. The library now contains more than 160,000 volumes of monographs and journals, 9,000 rare books, and an extensive non-book collection. There are 126 staff members in the research division (48 Ph.D. scientists and 78 technical and support personnel). This year 33 students are enrolled in the Garden’s graduate program, 18 of them from other countries, including Australia, Bhutan, Bolivia, Brazil, China, Colombia, Ecuador, Korea, Malawi, Mexico, Nicaragua, Peru, Taiwan, the United Kingdom, and Venezuela. New staff members in the Research Division since last October are Rita Randolph (Data Entry), Olga Fomina (Plant Mounter), Marlene Monroe (Plant Mounter), Mary Anne Norton (Plant Mounter), Sally Strange (Plant Mounter), Adam Wood (Plant Mounter), Emily Orling (Herbarium Assistant), and Jack Regalado (Assistant Curator). Randy Evans was promoted to Associate Curator, Doug Holland was named Administrative Librarian, and Suzanne Hirth moved from plant mounter to Herbarium Assistant for the Bolivia Checklist project. Kathy Hurlbert moved from the research division to become Administrative Coordinator for the Center for Conservation and Sustainable Development. In addition to their longstanding commitment to floristic, monographic, and curatorial research, the scientists at MO have greatly expanded their participation in conservation activities, studies of medicinal and other useful plants, ethnobotanical research, and the development of information technology for botanical data management. An overview of research activities at MO and a directory of its staff, associated university faculty, and research associates follow. For more information on any aspect of research at the Missouri Botanical Garden, we invite you to visit us on the Web at http://www.mobot.org. Top | Table of Contents News from MO 2001 was created by Kathy Hurlbert, Leslie Miller, Eloise Cannady and Mary Merello (October 2001) and placed on the MOBOT webserver 1/22/02.