If there is one problem that never goes away - it is the problem of space. There is never enough of it, and on the rare occasion that thereis, then it is in the wrong place. It is very healthy that we arealways feeling space pressure because it means that we are growing - bringing in new resources - and as the ~$16M that we (or more correctly you - the PIs) won in federal stimulus grants this year beginsto get spent (i.e. new people hired) the pressure to find space to put them grows. I had several meetings this week focused upon trying to solve specific problems - and there will be more in the coming weeks and months. One good piece of news on this front is that the competitive process to select the architect and construction manager for the New Core Lab renovation project is complete and so, finally, we are a few weeks away from finishing off the award negotiations with NSF. In the short term, of course, this project will only add to our space woes
because we shall have to find swing space to house folks temporarily as the second floor of the New Core lab gets completely taken apart and rebuilt.
But right now, no matter how challenging these problems are I can always convince myself of my good fortune... because my name is not Tony Hayward...
Speaking of which, there are at least three LDEO proposals in the submitted or planning stages for research related to the Deepwater Horizon oil spill. I am pleased by this - it is important that we use our skills to contribute in constructive ways when disasters like this occur. However, it is frustrating to see so little coherency in the Federal Governments research response to this event - a (hopefully) unique catastrophe from which so much important new knowledge about how
to respond to and/or mitigate future tragedies can be gained. (And assuredly, there will be future deep water oil spills like this).
On that happy note:
Have a great weekend,
Mike