Here we are in June, with the spring semester behind and the solstice ahead. The interns and other summer guests have arrived, and are being introduced gently, no doubt, to shuttle bus etiquette. Many of our colleagues are preparing for their summer field seasons and will be leaving steamy NY for perhaps even more tropical environs. Nevertheless, it never ceases to amaze how energized and packed the Lamont Campus becomes during the summer. Notwithstanding long lines in the cafeteria, it's a great time of year.
Joerg Schaefer is the recipient of this year's Excellence in Mentoring Award, the eighth to be given. Thanks are due to Chris Zappa, chair, and the other members of the award committee for providing recognition for this crucial aspect of our work at Lamont. We should also recognize the other nominees, Baerbel Hoenisch and Catherine Tozer, for the impact
they have had on the careers of their colleagues. The incoming chair of the committee is Elizabeth Streit, so watch for the call for nominations next spring.
There will be some turnover on other Lamont committees come July 1, which will be announced on our website.
Bev has sent out the call for proposals for support from the Advisory Board Innovation Fund. This Fund, which derives from the interest and support of our Board for innovative, high-risk and high-reward startups, allows us to provide seed funding for projects that are not yet ready for peer and panel review at the agencies. This year's deadline is Friday, June29th.
That Annual Gathering of the Associate Directors and HR Professionals, otherwise known as the annual merit review meeting, consumed two days this week. They were two very useful days, with our new director in attendance, reaffirming the excellence and hard work of our scientific staff. We also took this opportunity to review some of our promotion and
review procedures; personnel actions eat up a lot of energy and time (as they should) but there are still ways to make things more efficient. We have to keep the "trains running on time," as it were, for our promotion actions, and we can make the activity reports easier to complete yet more useful. Toward those ends, we will begin implementing a few changes beginning over the summer.
Finally, we bid fond farewell to Maria Salgado, who has brought consistency and temperance to the IRI as Executive Assistant to the Director. Good luck, Maria, and best wishes from all of us.
Art