Director's Weekly Reports

If the number of holiday parties and their culinary offerings are measures of the collective enthusiasm and energy of an institution, then those qualities are at the highest levels at Lamont. I have attended nine such events in the last seven days, and I hope to make it a round ten after completing this report.
 
Early this week, Bärbel Hönisch wrote to suggest that I mention in my weekly report the successful defense last week of a Ph.D. thesis by one of our graduate students...

For those of us at the American Geophysical Union Fall Meeting, the week has been a whirlwind patchwork of oral and poster presentations, program planning discussions, earnest conversations, and renewed connections, in part a multi-dimensional signpost of scientific progress across the Earth and space sciences and in part the tribal ritual of an enlarging and ever broadening community.

The week was launched with a meeting of the Marcus Langseth Scientific Oversight Committee on Sunday. The business portion of the meeting included reports from.....

It’s been a short workweek, truncated by a welcome opportunity to give thanks for family, friends, colleagues, and professional progress over the past year.
    
It is saddening, however, that geodesist and tectonophysicist John Beavan, a long-term member of the scientific staff at Lamont, succumbed to bladder cancer this past weekend.  John rose through the ranks to senior staff the observatory......

By Wednesday of this week, we were no sooner back to a normal shuttle schedule and nearly full electrical service, the latter thanks in large part to the crews sent to assist our region by Georgia Light and Power, when we were welcomed by the first snow of the season. Dubbed winter storm Athena by The Weather Channel, the nor’easter delivered a coat of white to the campus and added insult to those still struggling to recover from the injuries of hurricane Sandy. Locally, our Building and Grounds crew once again rose to the challenge and put in extra hours to clear roads and pathways into the evening and the next morning...

The first full round of Major League Baseball playoffs and a debate between Vice Presidential candidates remind us that we are in the month of October.

Today we recognize those in the Lamont community who, over the past year, have received awards in science and education or have been tapped for honorary lectureships. A recognition ceremony and reception to acknowledge these honorees is being held this afternoon in the Monell lower lobby...

It was evident this week that the academic year is in full swing.

On Monday, Art Lerner-Lam and I met with about two-thirds of Lamont’s postdoctoral scientists over lunch. A free-ranging discussion covered such topics as mentoring, career trajectories, expectations for scholarly progress, and opportunities for teaching and advising of student interns. Kuheli Dutt manages a web listing of Lamont’s current postdoctoral scientists (at least those who have responded to her request for a photo and a brief summary of research interests) at http://www.ldeo.columbia.edu/aad/meetpostdocs. Kuheli also maintains a website that collects topics of specific interest to our postdoctoral scientists at http://www.ldeo.columbia.edu/aad/postdoc...

The seasons are changing. Even as many on the Lamont staff are exploiting the final days of August for the rejuvenation and renewal of late-summer vacations, the Morningside campus is awash with the fresh
faces of new students.