Lamont Weekly Report – February 13, 2004

OFFICE OF THE DIRECTOR
P.O. Box 1000, 61 Route 9W Palisades, New York 10964

<> REPORT SUMMARY <>

– Letter from the Director –
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<> LETTER FROM THE DIRECTOR

In 1968 Joe Stennett started working for Lamont, and during the intervening 35 years has sailed on 150 legs, the majority of them on board Vema, Conrad and Ewing, as a Technician and for the past many years as Science Officer. You can do the math - if each leg is roughly one month, then Joe has spent 12 years of his life on the ocean, doing science. He is a legend across all US ocean institutions for his skill and reliability and dedication. His loyalty to Lamont is unmatched. Last night the Marine Department held a dinner for Joe to recognize his incredible record of service. He has decided to stay ashore from now on. Joe was presented with a global map depicting the tracks of all his cruises - in every ocean of the world - it was a daunting but impressive sight. But I have not had such a good time in a long while.

Speaking of seagoing, EWING sails next week, leaving the snow and cold of Norfolk Virginia, for the sun and warmth of the Caribbean. I wish I was going with her.

We ran another very successful reception this past Saturday, entertaining local friends. Thank you to the Lamonters who helped us with this - our displays ranged from one of the world's largest nuggets of platinum (carefully guarded by Dave Walker) to the New Jersey State plans for our new entrance and left-turn lane (which we hope to see as a reality this spring). Conversations were diverse, to say the least!

While I was down in DC on Monday, Tim Harwood and I had an excellent hour with Frank Press. He remains a great friend of Lamont and has agreed to help us organize a Lamont event at the National Academy of Sciences later this year. As we plan this I will keep you informed.

Our advertisement for the new Bruce C. Heezen Senior Research Scientist position has been published - appearing in Eos, Nature and Science. It is important that we use this attractive position to bring new leadership to our research staff, so in the coming weeks I will be working with Search committee co-chairs Paul Richards and Bill Ryan to seek out the very best applicants.

As I am sure everyone has heard by now, Rita Colwell is stepping down as NSF Director on February 21, and the present head of the NIST is going to take over in an interim capacity.

Happy Valentines Day and a great weekend,

– Mike
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