Acknowledgments

The Who's Who has had quite a lengthy birth, and numerous midwives have been in attendance. First, I would like to thank FAMSI's President and the Board of Directors for their faith in me and the project: I hope they like the new baby. The Executive Director of FAMSI, Dr. Sandra Noble, has been a constant source of support and encouragement throughout the pregnancy, and her suggestions for improving the final product have always been excellent.

Ms. Sandra Mielke has been tireless in her work to develop the website and its database. The easy mobility through the different sections and 'pages' of the Who's Who is entirely due to her and to the data field entry system that she has developed. The creation of the data entry system is a masterpiece in itself–but you can only begin to imagine what Sandy has had to deal with when you remember that at the other end of her e-mail line she has had someone who is still coming to grips with how many pixies can fit in an image and how many megatonnes can be sent in a P-pod attachment or whatever it is, and who uses high-tech terms like 'click-thingies' and 'squishable'. The 'two Sandies' have been ably assisted by others at FAMSI: Jim Davis, who as always, has been instrumental in the setting up and smooth running of the website, as well as FAMSI's receptionist, Miryan McDonald, who has frequently had to deal with that strange accent on the phone from the other side of the world.

No project dealing with Maya glyphs would be possible without the help of the community of epigraphers who have so kindly allowed details of their drawings to be used and reproduced. My heartfelt thanks go to Merle Greene Robertson, to David Schele (for permission to use the beautiful drawings of Linda Schele), to Simon Martin and David Stuart. This list of thanks will undoubtedly grow in the future.

I should also like to thank Justin Kerr for providing me with the image of a beautiful incised shell that has been the basis for one of the Who's Who entries. My grateful thanks also go to MacDuff Everton for his kind permission to use one of his beautiful photographs of Palenque in the introduction to that site.

I would also like to thank Péter Bíró for his helpful suggestions and advice, and for collaborating with me in the preparation of one of the introductory sections of the Who's Who.

Finally, I would like to thank my family: my wife Janet and our children David and Vickie, who have helped with various tasks relating to the Who's Who, from data entry to scanning to helpful advice on the 'look' of the final product. I dedicate the Who's Who to them, with my love and thanks.

Whoops, I hear the baby crying: time for its three-hourly feed of new data!