Lamont Weekly Report – October 20, 2006

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

Unfortunately again this week we are burdened with sadness. The
funeral for Eileen Casey took place on Monday - a Program coordinator
in our Central Administration, Eileen died tragically and
unexpectedly one day shy of her 24th birthday. Our hearts go out to
Eileen's family and to our colleagues in Administration who have been
so saddened by this terrible loss.

I was downtown on Wednesday briefing a subcommittee of the CU
Trustees on the status of our research vessel - that went well and
they all wanted to know when she was going to be in Manhattan so they
could have a tour - a question I am still unable to answer at this
time. But there is a lot of interest and I am confident that we will
be able to use Langseth to further increase our visibility both
locally and on the national scene.

We were very pleased to host a day-long visit by Jerome Paros one of
the primary benefactors of the Observatory's Technical Innovation
Center - by all accounts he was pleased with the extent and diversity
of the new technical development projects that we are beginning to
develop.

Overall we have had excellent news in recent days on the fund raising
front - we have received another $500,000 gift towards the Geochem
building (anonymous donor) and a pledge of $750,000 in new endowment
(a challenge grant to be matched dollar-for-dollar) from the Doherty
Foundation to help develop the Observatory's education activities.
Thanks to the development team - Sarah, Doug and Stacy - for making
this happen.

On Thursday I hosted our traditional annual lunch in recognition of
ten year veterans at Columbia - eight new members were inducted into
this club this year (Hans Bosch, Steve Goldstein, Gerry Iturrino,
Paul Krusic, Hoyle Lee, Kerstin Lehnert, Beate Liepert and Maya
Tolstoy) - all received very nice certificates to hang in their
bathrooms (at least that is where I keep mine).

Next week is dismal for me - three days of meetings in DC, but I
will be back on Friday.

Have a great weekend,



- Mike



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