Lamont Weekly Report – September 17, 2004

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

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

I just returned from Rhode Island where I greeted our new ship - Western Legend - upon her arrival from Norway. She is in excellent shape and had a good and trouble-free passage across the Atlantic. Though still crewed by her present owners, Western Geco, Lamont's Captain Mark Landau, Chief engineer Steve Pekar and Port Engineer Al Walsh rode the ship as observers across the Atlantic - so I had the opportunity to learn of their first impressions directly. All were enthusiastic about both her sea keeping and maneuvering capabilities. Formal transfer of ownership is scheduled to take place on Monday morning and we have planned a celebratory event at 4pm on Monday afternoon in the Monell Auditorium - please join us - all are welcome. The speeches will be very short, and a reception will follow. It is a historic event - only very rarely do we buy a new ship!!

We hosted the International Sample Curators meeting this week - thanks to the leadership of Rusty Lotti. Maybe one day this fundamentally important activity will receive the support and recognition it deserves - but it was a good meeting - with new ideas - and it was important to hear the experiences of other curatorial activities around the US and elsewhere.

Wednesday brought some tentative good news from the US Senate - the 2005 appropriations bill for the Commerce Dept has corrected some of the horrors of the NOAA budget - nothing is settled yet of course - it will have to go to conference - but still the direction is a good one.

And the last piece of good news for the week - The Eighth International Conference on Paleoceanography was held in Biarritz last week. Prizes were awarded to 13 students for their posters/research out of nearly 300 student submissions. LDEO students Alex Piotrowski and Bill Thompson were among the 13 awardees. Congratulations!!

Have a great weekend - despite the rain - I am sure I will see some of you at CU's Community Day tomorrow on the Morningside Campus.

– Mike
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