Lamont Weekly Report – March 10, 2006

OFFICE OF THE DIRECTOR
P.O. Box 1000, 61 Route 9W Palisades, New York 10964

<> REPORT SUMMARY <>

- Letter from the Director

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<>LETTER FROM THE DIRECTOR

I was on the shuttle to DC again on Tuesday - spent the day in a
Board meeting for CORE (Consortium for Oceanographic Research and
Education), and the evening having dinner with Lamont Alum Frank
Press. Wednesday was spent on the Hill in the Rayburn Office
building. Met the new Oceanographer of the Navy for the first time
(Admiral Byus) as well as the new Chief of Naval research (Admiral
Landay). The usual suspects were there giving standard Agency
presentations - NSF Director Arden Bement, NOAA Administrator Connie
Lautenbacher, Geoscience Directorate leader Margaret Leinen; as well
as a smattering of Congressmen (Boehlert, Gilchrist, Inslee, Saxton)
though all were distracted by the amount of huffing and puffing
required to keep the Dubai port management issue fully in flames.
Most interestingly, was a presentation by James Connaughton, a
lawyer, who runs the White House Council on Environmental Quality and
who has been charged by the President to lead the Administration's
efforts in developing an ocean initiative. At very short notice, a
major meeting (they are expecting 600-800 attendees!) has been called
in Denver April 18-20 to discuss ocean research priorities for the
nation - the intent being to have these finalized before the end of
the summer.

I flew home on Wednesday night. How come the 8pm shuttle landed at
La Guardia before the 7pm shuttle? Needless to say, I was on the 7pm
shuttle.

Highlights on Thursday were attempts (mostly successful) to
finalize the Observatory's 07 and 08 budgets - thanks to Pat
O'Reilly, Vicky Nazario, and Edie Miller; and 'a very close to final'
meeting with the Geochemistry architects talking primarily about the
overall 'look' of the building.

I was extremely gratified to see the good turn-out for Jeff Sachs
Town Meeting this afternoon - we will have to ask him to do that
again. Excellent discussion.

And now I go to listen to Ken Miller at the colloquium. I will try
to resist reminding him about his post-PhD defense party in Woods
Hole more than a few years ago when he demonstrated air guitar skills
with a fluorescent light fixture imitating Bruce Springsteen at a
skill level never again emulated.

It is going to be warm this weekend - enjoy,



- Mike




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