I spent Wednesday and Thursday in College Station, Texas meeting with NSF leadership about the future of the ocean drilling program (ODP) - it was colder in Houston and College Station than it was in New York - much to my surprise. Believe it or not ODP is up for renewal again in 2013 so already it is time to start thinking about plans and strategies.
We had dinner at the Dean's house (Kate Miller) on Wednesday night and who should turn up but Andy Fisher and Keir Becker - had not seen either of them for a couple of years - good to catch up. I want to invite Andy to Lamont to give the great talk he gave at the INVEST meeting in Bremen earlier this year.
I spent a large portion of today downtown meeting with representatives of a DC law firm called K&L Gates (started by Bill's father apparently) - the firm that has been recently retained by CU to represent us in DC - a very welcome development.
The saddest thing this week was that Kerstin Lehnert moved out of the Director's suite in Monell into her new digs in the MG&G Division in the Oceanography Building. Few understand the great contributions that Kerstin has made to the Observatory while she worked for me in the Director's office, but they have been significant. All of us here will miss her energy. I know that her move back to the science side of the house - where she is playing a really important leadership role - is the best thing for Lamont, but still - I will miss her, and the Director's office will be just a little emptier without her.
Somebody said something about snow this weekend, but surely that cannot be true...
Have a good weekend,
Mike