SURA News Update, December 2003

Jefferson Lab and Nuclear Physics

JLab On Target November/December 2003: JLab News. Editors: Linda Ware and Debbie Magaldi.

DOE review of JLab long-range plans: Ray Orbach, Director of the Office of Science of the Department of Energy, visited the Jefferson Lab on November 3 to hear about the Lab's long range plans. SURA President Jerry Draayer, along with members of the SURA Executive Committee David Ernst (Vanderbilt), Stephen Wallace (University of Maryland), and June Matthews (MIT) participated in this meeting. Orbach expressed his pleasure with the scientific accomplishments of the Lab and its plans for the future and he urged the Lab to develop its leadership role in superconducting radio-frequency, the technology used in the building of the accelerator at the Jefferson Lab. See also November/December 2003 On Target.

Jefferson Lab Chief Scientist: Lab director Christoph Leemann announced that Tony Thomas has agreed to come to the Jefferson Lab as Chief Scientist. Thomas, who comes to the Lab from the University of Adelaide, South Australia, will play a key role in the shaping the future of the laboratory's scientific program. SURA took an active role in the selection of the Chief Scientist, with two Board trustees Donald Robson (Florida State University) and Stephen Wallace (University of Maryland), serving on the selection committee.

SURA/JLab Graduate Fellowship Program: SURA continues to accept applications for the SURA/JLab Graduate Fellowship Program. Since its inception in 1989, SURA has awarded a total of ninety-eight fellowships under this program. Eight awards are planned for the next period to doctoral program graduate students at SURA member universities for research at the Jefferson Lab. A SURA Board subcommittee will make awards based on competitive evaluation of the applicant's academic qualifications, references, plan of study, research potential and relevance to the Jefferson Lab research programs. SURA contact: Hugh Loweth.

SURA/JLab Sabbatical/Research Leave Support Program: SURA continues to accept applications for the SURA/JLab Sabbatical/Research Leave Support Program. SURA offers a program to support living expenses of faculty from SURA member universities on sabbatical or research leave at the Jefferson Lab. This program provides $1,000 per month for a maximum of twelve months for up to two faculty members annually who must relocate to the vicinity of the Lab for their sabbatical or research leave. A SURA Board subcommittee will make awards based on competitive evaluation of the applicant's proposed plan of research, its merit, and quality and relevance to the Jefferson Lab programs. SURA contact: Hugh Loweth.

Blue Ribbon Commission: The Blue Ribbon Commission on the Use of Competitive Procedures for the Department of Energy Labs published its draft report Competing the Management and Operations Contracts for the DOE's National Laboratories in November. The Commission determined that principles for free and open competition could address the management problems perceived in the current operations of the laboratories. They recommend that high-level Departmental performance evaluations of the laboratories should be the basis for the competition decision and suggest that scientific and technical output should have the greatest weight in evaluating contractor performance. The Commission recommends a five-step process that will link performance to the extend/compete decision. SURA contact: Grace Plummer.


Information Technology

AT & T partnership/networking infrastructure: On December 16, AT & T and SURA announced a collaboration agreement that will allow the nation's research and education (R & E) community to use AT & T's newest national network infrastructure for experimental work on the next generation of networking technology and applications. The collaboration agreement is designed to speed the creation of regional and national Grid services to support the nation's R & E community. AT & T will make available, at no cost to SURA and the nation's R & E community, 8,000 miles of dark fiber network as well as a substantial inventory of optical networking equipment. These assets will be used to develop experimental network services to support advanced research that would not be possible using a commercial network. AT & T also will lease to SURA and its partners additional network facilities and capacity as needed. Virginia Governor Mark Warner, chair of the Southern Governors' Association and University of South Carolina President Andrew Sorensen, as well as others, spoke in support of this unique collaboration and its potential impact on the nation's R & E community. SURA contact: Gary Crane.

Coastal Research

The Ocean Observations and Coastal Systems Act: S.1400 is the authorization bill that establishes a national coastal ocean observing system largely based on the definition of such a system recommended by Ocean.US, and incorporating language drafted by many in the coastal ocean science community. The bill is currently in the House for review by four House committees, with joint hearings possible in early 2004. Legislative liaisons from SURA, CORE, GoMOOS, the Alaska system, and others are working together to plan funding requests in anticipation that the bill will pass Congress and be enacted into law in 2004. SURA contact: Phil Bogden.

SCOOP Data Grid: The first demonstration of interoperability between regional ocean observing systems came on line December 1, 2003. The demo web site, presents wind data from SEA-COOS and GoMOOS (and those of the National Data Buoy Center) being merged with Open GIS Consortium (OGC) web protocols. This is the first deliverable from the Interoperability Forum held in Washington, DC on October 31, 2003. SCOOP supported the implementation and coordination in partnership with DM Solutions Group, a Canadian IT firm, along with technical staff at GoMOOS and SEA-COOS. Other regional data contributors, within and outside the SURA footprint, will soon be added to this scalable OGC Standards-Compliant data portal. SURA contact: Phil Bogden


Tech Transfer and Commercialization

Terahertz Applications Symposium: SURA will host the Terahertz Applications Symposium: Bridging the Gap from R & D to the Marketplace on March 16-17, 2004, in Washington, DC. This event will be a forum for education and discussion between academia and industry regarding emerging terahertz technologies, with a focus on medical imaging, pharmaceutical, and security applications. The purpose of this symposium is to begin bridging the gap between the growing base of scientific research and the potential marketplace applications. SURA contact: Matt Thomas.

Southeast Technology Expo: SURA, along with co-founders, RTI International and Atlanta-based intellectual property law firm Thomas, Kayden, Horstemeyer, & Risley (TKHR), are launching a series of events that will highlight the commercial opportunities emanating from the Southeast region's rich research and development resources. The first annual Southeast Technology Expo, New Frontiers in Therapeutics - Emerging Technologies in Infectious Disease and Oncology, will be held at the Sheraton Imperial Hotel, adjacent to the Research Triangle Park, on October 5-7, 2004. The first Expo will focus on emerging anticancer, antiviral, and antimicrobial therapeutics, along with supporting technologies such as bioinformatics, drug delivery, and genomics. For more information, contact Susan Brown, RTI (919-541-7401) or Matt Thomas.

Executive, Management, Administrative

Executive Committee appointments: The SURA Board elected Otis Brown to serve as its vice chair for the 2004-2005 term. Brown, Dean of the Rosenstiel School of Marine & Atmospheric Science at the University of Miami, served a three-year term (2001-2003) as chair of the SURA Coastal Research Committee. The Board also elected the following committee chairs. SURA contact: Elizabeth Lawson.

* Finance Committee - Donald Lehman. Lehman, Executive Vice-President and George Gamow Professor of Theoretical Physics, George Washington University, serves concurrently as past chair of the Board, and has been a SURA Board member since 1993 and on the Executive Committee since 1996.
* Coastal Research Committee - Carolyn Thoroughgood. Thoroughgood, Dean of the College of Marine Studies at the University of Delaware, has been on the SURA Board since 2001.
* IT Committee - Dave Lambert. Lambert, Vice President for Information Services and Chief Information Officer, Georgetown University, and on the SURA Board since 2002, has been a member of the IT Committee Steering Group.
* Development Committee - Jim Siedow. Siedow, Vice Provost for Research, Duke University, has been on the SURA Board since 2001.

Board appointment - University of Georgia: SURA welcomes to the Board Gordhan Patel, Professor and Vice President for Research and Associate Provost, who has been appointed by President Michael Adams as the institutional representative from the University of Georgia to complete the unexpired term of Kirk Bertram who has left the University. SURA contact: Elizabeth Lawson.

Board appointment - Baylor University: SURA welcomes to the Board Truell Hyde, Vice Provost for Research and Director of CASPER, who has been appointed by Baylor President and CEO Robert Sloan, Jr. as the institutional representative from one of SURA's newest members. SURA contact: Elizabeth Lawson.

Board appointment - Oklahoma State University: SURA welcomes to the Board Stephen McKeever, Vice President for Research and Tech Transfer, who has been appointed by OSU CEO and President David Schmidly as the institutional representative from one of SURA's newest members. SURA contact: Elizabeth Lawson.

Spring 2004 Board meeting: The Spring meeting of the SURA Board of Trustees will be held on April 6 & 7, 2004 at the Crowne Plaza, 14th and K Streets, NW, Washington, DC. SURA contact: Elizabeth Lawson.