As it has in the past, the lab continued to place an emphasis on education, training researchers from seven other countries, including visiting scientists, post-doctoral fellows, and undergraduates. The lab also provided a training and research facility for over a dozen graduate students who are advised in their thesis research by Field Museum scientists. New projects in 1999 continue this emphasis on training and collaboration, including expanded analyses of Southeast Asian sea snakes by new undergraduate summer interns from Hanover College (Indiana) and new investigations of poorly-known lichens by visiting scientists from Germany and Brazil.