A nice surprise this morning: NOAA has announced that:
"Marcus G. Langseth has been selected for a 2011 Voluntary Weather Observing Ship (VOS) Award and Plaque with an outstanding total of 3,749 valuable manual and automated marine observations! In addition, your ship staff also helped automate observation programs on Roger Revelle and Melville. You will receive your special award later this year. Once
you have the award, we hope to acquire a digital photo for the Mariner's Weather Log to honor your achievement."
Sean Higgins adds that this is the result of the good efforts of the Langseth technical staff. Congratulations to the crew and staff!
Mike Purdy's office has organized a university-wide task force to coordinate planning for variations in the federal science budgets. This is a good thing, because it will allow us to work across the schools and departments to ensure that we manage these uncertainties coherently. Nevertheless, after our meetings with science appropriators on the Hill last week, I am very confident that basic research enjoys bipartisan support. That said, it is going to be important for us to keep track of what is happening in detail at the agencies; please let me or your associate director know if you hear anything that would help us strategize.
Diversity was on the agenda at this month's Deans Council. You'll recall that Kuheli and her task force worked hard last summer to develop a three-year plan to further institutionalize diversity initiatives at Lamont. I'm very pleased to see that Low Library planning is incorporating some of the very good ideas developed on this campus. This is still in the drafting stage, and will ultimately go to President Bollinger.
The mild weather is keeping our utility costs down; I'm willing to thank climate variability for helping us meet our budget.
Art