<> LETTER FROM THE DIRECTOR

The President's science advisor, Jack Marburger, who had an 8:30 am breakfast appointment with us turned up 40 minutes early on Monday morning!  So that was a challenging start to the week - but also an extremely productive one - because of his early arrival we were able to spend more time in discussion as opposed to just presentations, and that proved very constructive. He confirmed the Administrations dedication to earth and ocean observations as a high priority, and was particularly impressed by the usefulness and the "reality" of IRI's interinfrannual predictive capabilities. While wandering the campus he noted that we should cut down many trees on campus because of overcrowding - I told him that I did not have time to have that discussion.

It was an excellent visit and I am confident he left with an extremely positive impression of our work.

NSF's new Cyber Infrastructure program is an activity of substantial significance to us.  Many research programs are becoming increasingly dependent upon capabilities to access and manipulate large and diverse data sets, and in recognition of this fact NSF is organizing a new and substantial funding program, known by the hideous name Cyber Infrastructure.  The Observatory must play a leadership role in this program, and given the expertise that exists here, and given our relationship with CIESIN, it is clear to me that substantial opportunities exist - opportunities to further our research by the design and construction of improved data access and manipulation systems. We are talking about practical ways to do this, and will hold a small internal mini-workshop in a month or so to aid the development of our ideas.

It's time to take your tuxedo to the cleaners - it is the Lamont Ball a week from Saturday - hope to see you all there.


- Mike

______________________________________________________________