Lamont Weekly Report, April 18, 2008

Last Sunday we held a successful Alumni Association Board Meeting and lunch, along with a several of the Observatory's special friends, before Greg Mountain's great lecture at the second Spring Public
lecture event - again to a capacity crowd in the Monell Auditorium. I had to leave early from the reception to get down to Newark airport in time to catch a plane to Houston with Dave Goldberg, rolling in to College Station substantially after midnight. So Monday was spent talking with the TAMU folks and with Ocean Leadership about how to
keep the Ocean Drilling Program thriving and successful, through these difficult times of rocketing fuel costs and decreasing NSF support. After losing Tuesday to the return trip from Texas, and Wednesday to day-long interview sessions with a candidate for our new Academic Affairs and Diversity position, and Thursday morning to a very
educational visit to the Liberty Science Center (to talk about a possible MoU), Friday arrived  - the pinnacle of which was the annual budget meeting with Provost Brinkley - always a positive joy.

Langseth arrived in port in Costa Rica this week - at the end of her first two legs of science operations for Steve Holbrook - which were by all accounts highly successful - absolutely fabulous data from the 8 km long streamer.

With the sunshine predicted for this weekend, inevitably my mind will drift towards thoughts of the new sailing season around the corner, and after momentary elation I will be crushed by the  length and diversity of the list of things that have to be done to the boat before she can launched... but then, what's new?

Have a great summer weekend!

Mike