Lamont Weekly Report – December 17, 2004

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

<> REPORT SUMMARY <>

– Letter from the Director –
____________________________________

<> LETTER FROM THE DIRECTOR

I have been, and still am, in San Francisco at the Annual meeting of the American Geophysical Union. There have been too many meetings and events to recount in detail, and lots of chance encounters with old colleagues - Mike Crow among them - his usual energetic self, enthusing about the changes and growth he is bringing to his University.

Perhaps the most unusual event was the special showing of the new James Cameron IMAX movie on Monday night - this has truly spectacular footage of deep sea hydrothermal vents - our own Maya Tolstoy is one of its stars and Lamont gets some good visibility. The world premiere is in Manhattan in late January - we will have to figure out a way to use this to improve our 'name recognition' outside of the academic community.

Maya introduced me to James Cameron and we talked for 20 minutes about his interests, his plans and the challenges associated with engaging the general public in complex scientific concepts - not surprisingly, he is an extremely impressive individual.

There are a three of non-AGU related topics:

I announce formally a reorganization of an important part of the Observatory - the Office of Marine Operations. The details of this plan are included in a separate set of paragraphs appended below.

I am very please to announce the very unsurprising news that Marc Spiegelman has been awarded tenure in the Departments of Earth and Environmental Sciences AND Applied Physics and Applied Mathematics. This is a big deal! So when next you see Marc - please congratulate him.

Finally, a Trust Fund has been established, the George A. Papa Memorial Trust Fund, the resources of which will be used to benefit George's three children. If you wish to make a contribution please send it directly to George A. Papa Memorial Trust Fund, 16, Windsor Drive, Dumont NJ 07628. Cheques should be made out to the George A. Papa Trust Fund.

I fly back to New York on Friday, and next week will see the Holidays begin. Happy Holidays to everyone, travel safely,

Mike

Reorganization of the LDEO Marine Department

As operations of EWING draw to a close, and as we face the substantial challenge of refitting and operating our new vessel, Marcus G. Langseth, we have decided to implement a number of significant changes to the structure of the Office of Marine Operations. These changes are motivated by the need to improve our ability to manage the complex and costly project of vessel conversion and to insure that we are able to effectively operate this substantially more complex facility efficiently in the service of the US academic marine research community.

The Office will be rearranged into a set of three functional units, each with its own head, to be called: Administration, Marine and Science Coordination and Engineering and Technical Services (ETS). These units will report to the Operations Manager who will in turn report to the Associate Director. We will also be creating a new internal Working Group (to be called the Marine Operations Working Group (MOWG)), of 4-5 Observatory researchers who will constitute the primary source of detailed advice and guidance for the Head of the Engineering and Technical Services Unit. As we expand our staffing to the levels required to operate the Langseth, a new senior level Science Officer will be recruited, reporting to the Head of ETS, preferably with industry-based experience in multiple streamer operations.

We are creating a new position, Chief Scientist, Marine Operations, who will report directly to the Associate Director and will be responsible for initiating and leading new projects that will keep Lamont's Marine Operations at the cutting edge of science and technology.

The changes are designed to better integrate the marine and science sides of the operation with the creation of the new unit (ETS) within the Office that will manage both the marine engineering and the technical services. The name of the office will change from Office of Marine Affairs to Office of Marine Operations.

Paul Ljunggren will be named the Operations Manager, Al Walsh will be the Head of Engineering and Technical Services, Maya Tolstoy has agreed to lead the Marine Operations Working Group, and John Diebold will be the Chief Scientist. Mike Purdy will continue in his role as Interim Associate Director. A competitive search will take place immediately to fill the new position of head of the Administration Unit, and a search to fill the Coordinator position will take place later in 2005.

These changes will become effective on January 1st 2005. However, there will be a period of transition during which existing staff will play multiple roles until new personnel can be identified, and where necessary recruited, to fill the new positions.

____________________________________

You can subscribe / unsubscribe to the Lamont Weekly Report mailing list.

– To subscribe - send your request to:
majordomo@ldeo.columbia.edu
Subject: Request
The following command must be in the BODY of the message not in the subject:

subscribe lamont-l <email address>

– To unsubscribe - send your request to:
majordomo@ldeo.columbia.edu
Subject: Request
The following command must be in the BODY of the message not in the subject:

unsubscribe lamont-l <email address>

If you have questions or problems send e-mail to the list owner:
owner-lamont-l@ldeo.columbia.edu