Director's Weekly Reports

     Hello Friends,  I hope everyone is enjoying the cool fall weather and increasingly colorful woodlands.  It has been another busy week at Lamont.  Thank you to everyone that tuned into the Town Hall and especially to Alex, Art, and Pat for updating us all on the Climate School, Covid-19, and our campus, respectively.  Other events I’ve participated in this week include a meeting with Art, Alex, and the Trustees of the Doherty Foundation to update them on the work of Lamont, the education programming the Foundation supports and our role in the Climate S

     Hello Friends,  How has your Climate Week NYC been going?  Given that for many of us every week is climate week, maybe you didn’t pay much attention to this event.  But it is pretty amazing and inspiring when you scroll through all the events and lectures devoted to imagining a pathway toward a decarbonized <2°C warmer world.  It gives me hope to see people from so many different fields envisioning a better way forward.  It also excites me about the potential of the Columb

     Hello Friends,  This will be a short newsletter for a short week.  It is also the week we welcome our new cohort of graduate students to Lamont!  Of course, we usually have a lovely picnic behind Lamont Hall, but this year we will have a “Zoom picnic” instead.  Pass the ketchup!

     Hello Friends,  Lots of great stuff has happened this week, not the least of which was that the R/V Marcus Langseth set sail out of Newport Beach, Oregon after a complicated, but ultimately successful quarantine.  Oh, to be back on the high seas again…

     Hello Friends,  Black Lives Matter.  If you click on those words you will be taken to Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory’s statement on our commitment to anti-racism and institutional change.  As we strive to create a progressive, anti-racist, inclusive community at Lamont, we must each uphold the values of diversity, equity, and inclusion in our daily practices.  Lamont has already begun to take concrete steps to embed anti-discriminatory

    Hello Friends,  As I start writing this (on Thursday) of course there is only one thing I really need to say:  HAPPY 100^TH BIRTHDAY MARIE THARP!!!!  What a special moment to reflect upon this early pioneer in oceanography, someone who not only helped put the Earth on the map, but also helped put Lamont on the map.  There has been so much great content about Marie this week, from twitter posts, to interviews, to photographs, to podcasts, to videos — she has clearly become a hero to many, and rightly so. 

    Hello Friends,  As we migrate into the heart of summer, Lamont continues to slowly reopen.  Hopefully everyone is comfortable with the new procedures and protocols being put in place, all designed to keep us safe and healthy.  Continued thanks to our Lamont COVID committee, the Associate Directors, the building and grounds team, the security and cleaning teams, our bus drivers (Eddie!

    Hello Friends,  What a great week!  It has been a true pleasure to step into the role of Interim Director of Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory and spend even more of my normal workday interacting with all the talented professionals and students on our campus.  Thank you for all the welcoming messages of support as well.

    Today is a university holiday, to celebrate the freeing of the last group of slaves in the Confederate States 155 years ago. Columbia University President Lee Bollinger, in announcing the holiday on Wednesday evening, acknowledged that “[our institution] is not innocent of the structures of racism that have afflicted America. Yet we also have a history of confronting invidious discrimination and anti-Black racism…, and we need to summon our better traditions as we recognize Juneteenth and commemorate the emancipation of enslaved people in the United States.”