<> LETTER FROM THE DIRECTOR

Congratulations to Bob Anderson for his selection as this years Mentorship awardee - the ceremony on Tuesday afternoon was as enjoyable as in previous years and Brendon Buckley and his colleagues on the Award committee deserve our thanks once again for all their work in evaluating in the nominations.  Bob is monopolizing our awards this year - it must be his winning smile, ...but for sure he is deserving of this recognition.

Kyla Simons and her colleagues deserve our thanks for organizing a tremendous Lamont Ball on Saturday evening - for those who were not able to attend - you missed a great band and a number of spectacular dancing exhibitions, most notably (to my mind) by William Menke (of whom you may have heard.)

Thank you to Brendon and Ed and Gordon of the Tree Ring Lab for the public lecture on Sunday afternoon they gave a tremendous show and then were hit with the most diverse set of questions I have heard so far this year (ranging from the safety of the Yucca Mountain nuclear waste repository, to possible meteorite impacts). Needless to say, all were handled with aplomb and panache (as appropriate).

My week, and that of your Associate Directors, has been dominated by the salary review process, (while others have been influenced by commencement on Wednesday).  We spent essentially two full days going through all the Doherty research staff activity reports, and making final decisions on merit increases - when approvals are completed the Associate Directors will be passing on the news to everyone. This is a tough process, but please be assured that every effort has been made to insure that the outcome is fair.

Looks like a rainy Memorial Day weekend - EWING is due to sail from Gulfport on Tuesday, so as you relax over the weekend, think of the folks on the ship getting ready for Maya Tolstoy and John Diebold's cruise.

Have a great weekend,

- Mike

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