The first week after returning from vacation is always tough - especially when the weather is as great as it is today - a marked change from last week!
Finalizing the decision not to hold Open House this fall was one of the more discouraging moments of this first week back - but given the tough spot we are in financially, and given that the cost of Open House equates approximately to that of one year of post doc support, I fear there was no alternative. The article about this in the Journal News on Friday misquoted me with regards to my hopes of when we could hold the next one. The article said 2011 - I really hope we do not have to miss two years - I hope we can do it again next year in 2010.
This year we have 57 new graduate students joining DEES in September. That is a happy positive thing - new bright minds to keep the intellectual atmosphere fresh and challenging. Speaking of fresh and challenging - a two hour ExCom this morning covered a good range of topics. Finally I think we have come up with mechanisms to convert the Doherty staff from 12 month to 9 month Research Professor positions without running afoul of effort reporting regulations.
Another important stimulus-package infrastructure proposal went out the door today - thanks to Pat O'Reilly and Bonnie Bonkowski and many others - a $1.5M request to NIST to help complete the ultra clean lab in the Comer Building. With August 15th just 8 days away I think many of us will be singularly focused upon the proposal production process.
But have a great weekend anyway.
Have a great weekend,
- Mike