Lamont Weekly Report, December 6, 2010

Lamont's new Assistant Director for Large Programs and Compliance began work on Wednesday - Glenn Gordian will occupy an office on the ground floor of the Admin Building and will be singularly focused in his early months here upon helping us with the response to the NSF Business Systems Review of the Office of Marine Operations. Glenn comes to us
with tremendous knowledge of Government contracting but with little previous experience in academia, so I hope everyone will help Glenn adjust to our somewhat contrasting culture!

I am glad to hear so many folks are planning on attending the EI Holiday Party this coming Tuesday - see you there - Faculty house at 4pm.

I had lunch with two of our Marie Tharp Fellows on Wednesday - Stacie Gordon from UC Santa Barbara and Debora Iglesias-Rodriguez from IOS in Southampton.  My judgment concerning the value and effectiveness of this program was once again reaffirmed. Two more Fellows will be joining us later in 2011.

Two Developmental reviews and one senior staff ad hoc kept me busy reading CV's research statements throughout the week, which was topped off with a DEES Faculty meeting and a superb colloquium by the Princeton luminary Rob Socolow.

It is the last week before AGU next week - so guaranteed to be hectic, independent of the fact that we also have our last Advisory board meeting of the calendar year (downtown at the Columbia Club). At this Board meeting we are planning to roll out Bill Ryan's iPad (and iPhone) App - The Earth Observer - which is scheduled to go on sale at the Apple App store on December 12th.  Check it out - it will make the perfect holiday gift for friends and family!!

Have a great weekend,

- Mike