SURA News Update, September 2003

Jefferson Lab and Nuclear Physics

JLab in the news: Old Dominion University professor Lawrence Weinstein and graduate student, Rustam Niyazov, presented results of an experiment conducted at Jefferson Lab on the CEBAF Large Acceptance Spectrometer (CLAS). See Daily Press article Scientist: Atoms, humans have similar mating rituals. JLab media contact: Linda Ware.

Laboratory Operations Board: The Laboratory Operations Board (LOB) was established by the Secretary of Energy Advisory Board (SEAB) and consists of members external to the Department of Energy as well as Departmental executives. At its September meeting, the LOB discussed metrics and benchmarking. In an attempt to address more appropriate metrics for the DOE and its labs, the LOB intends to focus on the metric and reward system. Additionally, the LOB will make recommendations that will help establish a "best practices culture" at its labs. One recommendation was for DOE's top officials to articulate the Department's expectation for best practices, benchmarking, and improvement and to ensure these expectations are captured in its contracts for the labs. SURA contact: Grace Plummer.

Information Technology

AT&T partnership/networking infrastructure: SURA continues to work towards finalization of a cooperative agreement with AT&T that will provide SURA with no-cost leases of dark fiber and donated equipment on AT&T's next general national network. Concurrently, SURA and Geographic Network are conducting site surveys of facilities and equipment across the SURA region that will be made available to SURA through this agreement. To date, surveys have been completed of facilities and equipment in the Houston-Jacksonville-Atlanta segments of the AT&T NexGen network. The information from surveys will provide the detailed input required for the development of a technical and business model for utilizing the assets and services that will be made available by AT&T. SURA contact: Gary Crane.

PACS NMI Workshops: Seven institutions participated in the first of two Enterprise Directories and Directory-Enabled Applications workshops held at Georgia State University in August. Respondents of course evaluations encourage the delivery of similar workshops to support enterprise directory deployment at small and under-served institutions. Recommendations regarding instructional design and content will be considered at the second workshop in September. Both workshops are targeted at participants from the AN-MSI (Advanced Networking Project for Minority-Serving Institutions) project and the CIC (Council of Independent Colleges). While the September workshop will complete the project currently funded under the NCSA PACS (Partner for Advanced Computational Services) program, participants expressed a strong interest to work with the project team to explore ways to continue the service provided by this training. SURA contact: Mary Fran Yafchak.

ViDe Digital Video Workshop: The sixth annual SURA ViDe Digital Video workshop will be held March 22-25, 2004, at Indiana University in Indianapolis. Plans are underway for pre- and post-workshop events as well as a wide spectrum of main workshop presentations that will highlight practical uses and state-of-the-art development in digital video for education and research. Additional details will be available on an ongoing basis on the ViDe Web site. For information on presenting, exhibiting or sponsoring the workshop, SURA contact: Mary Fran Yafchak.

Computational Chemistry Conference: The third annual Computational Chemistry Grid Conference sponsored by SURA in collaboration with the National Computational Sciences Alliance (NCSA), the University of Kentucky and the Department of Defense's Programming Environment and Training (PET) Program will be held at the University of Kentucky in Lexington on October 20 & 21, 2003. This year's conference will focus on the development and application of techniques in material science, computational biology and bio-molecular modeling and simulation for both cutting edge cluster computing and for the coming generation of terascale computers. With support from the Army Research Laboratory PET program, travel stipends will be offered to students at HBCU and MSI institutions to attend the conference. There is no registration fee for this conference. SURA contact: Sue Fratkin.

DOE Networking Plan: The Energy Sciences Network Steering Committee has published its final report from the June DOE Science Networking: Roadmap to 2008 workshop. The workshop, chaired by Jefferson Lab CIO Roy Whitney, was conducted at the request of the Office of Advanced Scientific Computing Research of the DOE Office of Science to re-examine its long-term strategy for high performance networking infrastructure. JLab CIO: Roy Whitney.

Coastal Research

Coastal Data Working Group & Workshop: As part of a $127K grant from the Office of Naval Research (ONR) for the Pennies from Heaven initiative, SURA and the NOAA Coastal Services Center, Charleston, SC are planning a major workshop engaging a broad cross-section of the coastal science community in developing and implementing community standards for data exchange. This initiative complements SURA's SCOOP program goals. Pennies from Heaven workshop planners are coordinating with Ocean.US to ensure alignment with national needs. SURA contact: Phil Bogden.

Data-Grid Activity: Work has begun on the Data Grid demo project, the second major activity under the ONR SCOOP grant. The goal of this project is to demonstrate coastal data integration for the entire eastern seaboard and Gulf of Mexico, leveraging ongoing efforts at the regional level, and coordinating all those regions on an even larger scale. The SEA-COOS and Caro-COOPS programs are leading the charge in the southeast. SURA contact: Phil Bogden.

Model-Grid: Following the very successful August GRID Workshop organized by the University of Florida's Peter Sheng, the third of the major SCOOP activities is beginning to take shape. In addition to the University of Florida, likely participants in this Grid demonstration will include Louisiana State University and the College of William and Mary's Virginia Institute of Marine Sciences. SURA contact: Phil Bogden.

Tech Transfer and Commercialization

License for JLab light guide technology: SURA recently signed a license agreement with Advanced Illumination Technologies, LLC (AIT) for the light guide technology developed by researchers at the Jefferson Lab. The patented technology, which includes a flexible tube filled with liquids, allows light to be transmitted along a flexible pathway and emitted at specific points. AIT will initially use the technology in safety applications such as lighted vests for emergency management personnel. Additional markets include transportation illumination, display lighting, and children's toys. AIT also anticipates ongoing R&D with SURA and RayVisions, another licensee of related Jefferson Lab technologies. See other JLab patented technologies. SURA contact: Matt Thomas.

Executive, Management, Administrative

Board appointment - University of Alabama at Birmingham: SURA welcomes to the Board Professor Christopher Lawson, who has been appointed as the institutional representative from UAB to complete the unexpired term of Joan Lorden who left the University. SURA contact: Elizabeth Lawson.

Board appointment - Interim chair: Jim Siedow, Duke University, has been named as Interim Chair of the SURA Development Committee following the departure of Joan Lorden from the University of Alabama at Birmingham this summer. The Nominating Committee, chaired by Board Past Chair David Ernst, is in process of considering the slate of all committee chairs to be voted on by the Board at its November meeting. SURA contact: Elizabeth Lawson.

Fall Board meeting: The Fall meeting of the SURA Board of Trustees will be held at Louisiana State University, hosted by Council Chair and LSU Chancellor Mark Emmert on November 11&12, 2003. The Lod and Carole Cook Conference Center & Hotel will be the conference site for this meeting. SURA contact: Elizabeth Lawson.

SURA staff: SURA welcomes to its staff Mark Peele as Manager of Accounting and Financial Reporting. Peele, a graduate of the University of Maryland, joins the SURA chief financial office after 19 years with Lexis Nexis Academic & Library where he was the Manager for Financial Reporting and Analysis for the past seven years.