LAMONT WEEKLY REPORT

June 27, 2003

OFFICE OF THE DIRECTOR

P.O. Box 1000, 61 Route 9W Palisades, New York 10964

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<> REPORT SUMMARY <>

<> Letter from the Director <>

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<> LETTER FROM THE DIRECTOR

I had an extremely productive trip to NSF this past Monday.  I met with Dave Epp, Walt Snyder, Sandy Shor, Mike Reeve, Jim Yoder, Margaret Leinen. We fixed arrangements for an historic visit to Lamont by program managers from all three Divisions of NSF's Geoscience Directorate - Earth, Ocean and Atmosphere. I doubt whether representation from all three Divisions has ever made a site visit together ever before.  This is all part of trying to build plans for our role in the new NSF Cyberinfrastructure Program, AND build better communications for support of cross-disciplinary research in general.  
This visit is currently scheduled to take place on July 28th.

This morning was the annual meeting of the LDEO Administrative Committee, at which we have the opportunity to brief President Bollinger on some of our accomplishments during the year, make an assessment of the 'state' of the Observatory, and discuss future plans. This went very well (I think) - we managed to transmit a message of quality and accomplishment and great promise for the future.

Believe it or not, planning for this year's Open House (October 4th) is well underway.  The membership of the organizing committee is as follows:

       Karen Hoffer, Susan Muldowney, Cathy Turnick, Jackie Graney,
       Ginny Beck, Art Lerner-Lam, Stacey Gander, Kristie Morgiewicz,
       Joe Schumacher, Mike Bell, Margie Turrin, Rusti Lotti,
       Mary Reagan, Nicole Davi, Carol Mountain, Gerd Krahmann,
       Jeff Shapiro, Pat Temple, Dick Greco, Ray Long, Tom Eberhard,
       Bob Bookbinder, Doug Brusa, Sara Kopcsak, Mariellen Gallagher,
       Ji Mi Choi, Mary Tobin, Mark Inglis,Vilma Gallagher, Carmen Alex,
       Paul Ljunggren, Joyce O’Dowd, Donna Fratellenico, Melanie Melo,
       Susan Elbin, Ann Seligman, Timothy Harwood.

First of all, I want to thank all these folks for their continuing hard work, but also urge anyone who wishes to participate - especially (but not exclusively) in the preparation of a 'climate change' tent - please feel free to contact one of the committee members.

Importantly, at the most recent Executive Committee meeting, approval was given for a year-long pilot program of monthly inspections of chemistry laboratories at the Observatory.  The purpose of these inspections is to promote safe laboratory practices and to insure EPA, OSHA, and Columbia/Lamont rules for laboratory operation and chemical disposal are being followed. These inspections will be carried out by the following individuals who were appointed by the Laboratory Safety Committee: Linda Baker, Marty Fleisher, John Goddard, Chuck McNally, and Jamie Ross.  Initial inspections will take place in July and routine inspections will begin in August.  A check list and comment sheet will be filled out for each inspection and filed with the Lamont Safety Office with copies sent to the PIs responsible for the various labs. This is an important step to improve safety in our laboratories, and I urge full cooperation with this process.

I leave for Oslo Norway tomorrow, to hold discussions with a ship owner, about the possibility of purchasing a vessel to replace EWING - it is an industrial seismic boat with substantially more capability than EWING could ever have.  The discussions are in the very early stages, but it remains an exciting, and I believe, a realistic prospect. I shall report on what I see next week.

Keep cool.

- Mike


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