On Friday, April 30, DTM's David James gave a public lecture at the National Museum of Natural History. James gave the talk in his capacity as the IRIS/Seismological Society of America Distinguished Lecturer for 2003-2004. The mandate of the lectureship is "to increase visibility, awareness of relevance, and excitement for seismology with the general public.  The talk, titled "Revealing the Mysteries of the Earth's Deep Interior: Plates, Plumes, and the Birth of Modern Seismology," discussed major advances in new seismic instrumentation by the seismological research community that have dramatically enhanced their ability to image and to understand the Earth's interior in terms of the dynamical processes that drive plate tectonics and shape the surface of the planet. James focused particularly on the use of large portable seismic arrays to obtain three-dimensional images of the Earth's deep interior beneath the continents from observations of seismic waves produced by both local and distant earthquakes. Later this month James will be inducted as a Fellow of the American Geophysical Union at a ceremony during the AGU Spring Meeting in Montreal.