Lamont Weekly Report – July 29, 2005

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

The last week of July already... the low point was unquestionably a 3 hour long twenty two way telephone conference call. The high point was a wonderful lunch on Monday for those celebrating ten years at Columbia, and the most poignant, without doubt, was a meeting with the Dean of the School of Science and the Chair of the Dept of Geology of the University of Baghdad. They were on a trip to the US to ask for help in rebuilding their University - a trip financed and organized not by the US State Dept or by some other Aid agency of the US Federal Government, but by the Third Infantry Division of the US Army (currently in Baghdad). The determination of these two individuals to rebuild their University in the face of phenomenal adversity was touching to say the least, as was the optimism of the Third Infantry Captain who accompanied them.

We need to remember how lucky we are.

Though luck had nothing to do with the good news from NSF that they plan to support a number of new major data base activities here over the next five years - thanks to the leadership of Kerstin Lehnert and Suzanne Carbotte and many collaborators (including CIESIN) we anticipate receiving grants totaling over $3M. This is a very important area in which the Observatory will continue to play a leadership role.

The end of July means that August 15th is close by. This mid summer NSF target date always brings a flood of proposals. Please be considerate to your DA's and to our Office of Projects and Grants - let them know how many proposals you will be submitting and do everything possible to get your budgets and text completed in a timely way. Be assured that everyone will do all possible to get your proposals out on time - but there are limits to our capabilities - so please try to plan ahead.

Have a great weekend,

– Mike

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