Jefferson Lab Open House: The public is invited to tour the Jefferson Lab at the Science is Cool!Open House on Saturday, April 26, 2003. This popular event is an opportunity for visitors to grasp the scope of the nuclear physics research program and technology developments underway at the Lab. The accelerator, experimental halls, FEL, and several other major areas of the facility will be open for tours. Out-of-town visitors can reserve overnight accommodations at the SURA Residence Facility. JLab contact: Linda Ware.
H.R.34: Representative Judy Biggert (R-IL) introduced H.R. 34, the Energy and Science Research Investment Act of 2003 for consideration by the new Congress. This bill would authorize an increase in funding to the Department of Energy's Office of Science by 60% by FY07. The FY04 budget would increase by 8%, followed by 11%, 15%, and 15% increases in the following years, a growth of $2.03B from the FY02 budget of $5.31B. The bill calls for the creation of an Under Secretary of Energy Research and Science who would oversee DOE-funded civilian science at its non-weapons labs and research universities. A Science Advisory Board comprised of the chairs of DOE's advisory panels would also be established. The move is now on to build support for the bill that currently has 43 co-sponsors.
FY04 DOE science funding: Under the Administration's FY04 budget request, the DOE's Office of Science would receive less than 1.0% increase over its FY02 appropriations level (or 1.4% increase over the FY2003 budget request). Office of Science Director Ray Orbach explains that the ramping down of construction projects (Spallation Neutron Source, Neutrinos at the Main Injector, etc.) is reflected in this request. The FY04 request for Nuclear Physics of $389.4M is 11.1% up from the FY02 appropriations and 1.8% from the FY03 request and funds "two large flagship national user accelerator facilities, the Continuous Electron Beam Accelerator Facility in Newport News, Virginia, and the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider at Brookhaven National Laboratory in New York. It also supports several other laboratory and university facilities and a program of non-accelerator physics."
FY03 appropriations for Jefferson Lab: The Congress recently completed action on appropriations for FY2003 that began October 1, 2002. While the Jefferson Lab has not received its final allocation for FY03 from DOE, it appears that the Lab will receive on the order of $79M for its nuclear physics program, an increase of $5M over FY2002. This is a significant increase in the Lab's funding and will permit the Lab to strengthen its science output. SURA contact: Hugh Loweth.
DOE facilities review results (12-GeV upgrade and FEL): The DOE Office of Science recently completed a series of reviews of long range plans for new facilities likely to be proposed for support by the Office. The 12-GeV upgrade continued to get high marks as a top priority nuclear physics project in this process. The Jefferson Lab Free Electron Laser program also received a boost when the review panel reporting to the DOE Basic Energy Science Advisory Committee recommended favorable consideration of the FEL as a user facility to perform basic scientific research. BESAC concurred and DOE plans a series of workshops to develop the user community for FEL-related science at Jefferson Lab and other laboratories. The Jefferson Lab FEL has largely been supported by Department of Defense funds for potential military applications and support from the DOE nuclear physics program for advanced accelerator R&D.
Administrative Peer Review: A review panel rated the Jefferson Lab's business and administrative practices Outstanding in the Admin Peer Review conducted March 3-5, 2003. The panel, comprised of national lab division leaders, DOE representation, and the Jefferson Lab User Group chair, heard presentations from the Lab's senior administrative staff and interviewed the Lab's Director's Council and its division managers as part of its assessment of the effectiveness and efficiency of business and administrative practices at the Lab. This review is conducted annually as part of SURA's oversight responsibilities as M&O contractor for the Lab. This year's rating continues a series of Outstanding ratings since 1995, the first year of SURA's performance-based contract with the Department of Energy.
APS Fellows: The Jefferson Lab's interim theory group leader, Rocco Schiavilla, along with two Jefferson Lab users have been elected Fellows of the American Physical Society. Schiavilla, also a professor of physics at Old Dominion University, was noted for his work "advancing the theory of nuclei as systems of nucleons bound together by two- and three-body forces, and particularly for studies of their electroweak interactions." Jefferson Lab users Charles Perdrisal (William and Mary) and Douglas Beck (University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign) were also elected APS Fellows.
SURA/JLab Fellowship Program: The SURA/JLab Fellowship evaluation committee concluded its review of fourteen proposals for the eight 2003 SURA/Jefferson Lab fellowships to be awarded. Awardees will be notified of their selection to be involved in the program for advanced training related to the theory and experimental research programs of Jefferson Lab. The evaluation committee is chaired by James Lambert of Georgetown University (ret.). Other members are SURA Board vice chair, Stephen Wallace, University of Maryland; Paul Stoler, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute and chair-elect of the Jefferson Lab User Group Board of Directors; and Robert Welsh, Jefferson Lab/William & Mary. SURA contact: Hugh Loweth.
Nathan Isgur Distinguished Postdoctoral Fellowship: A selection has been made for the first recipient of the SURA/Jefferson Lab Nathan Isgur Distinguished Postdoctoral Fellowship. Evgeny Epelbaum, Research Associate at Ruhr-Universitat Bochum, Germany, will be awarded the fellowship as a promising theorist displaying extraordinary scientific ability at an early stage in his career. The distinguished fellowship was established by the SURA Board as a memorial to the late Nathan Isgur who served as the Jefferson Lab's Chief Scientist and Head of the Lab Theory Group.
Information Technology
AT&T partnership/networking infrastructure: SURA and UCAID are continuing to work closely with AT&T and have exchanged a first draft of a cooperative agreement that outlines a working relationship between AT&T and the national R&E community. Components of this relationship include donations of dark fiber for the creation of production and research networks in support of research and education as well as special pricing for AT&T wave based services for higher education.
NSF network infrastructure funding programs: SURA will facilitate the development of collaborative proposals for two new NSF network infrastructure programs, NSF 03-538-Network Research Testbeds and NSF 03-539-Experimental Infrastructure Network (see summaries). With the evolving relationship with AT&T, SURA members are well-positioned to develop collaborative proposals targeted at these programs. SURA contact: Gary Crane.
SGA eCorridors: The Southern Governors' Association (SGA) announced the Southern eCorridors Project, a Southern States High Performance Network Grid that will enable the South to have "the capability, at a reasonable cost, to produce and access high volume information and services in the networked world." With the creation of an accessible and affordable fiber optic network infrastructure throughout the region, the South will begin to realize its shared vision of educational, economic and scientific competitiveness. The SGA and SURA will work together to develop a coordinated vision and strategy to facilitate the Southern eCorridors Project. SURA contact: Gary Crane.
SURA Optical Networking Cookbook: The SURA Optical Networking Cookbook (v1.0) has gained much visibility since its unveiling at the Internet2 members meeting in October 2002 and at the Joint Techs conference in February 2003. SURA plans to expand the scope of the Cookbook, initially with the development of a set of guidelines for new content contributors and a review committee to consider and implement incremental changes towards a next version. To grow the Cookbook to its full potential, the OpCook project team is investigating the applicability and potential of various funding sources and other means of support. Projects leads: Ana Preston, University of Tennessee, and Troy Travis, University of South Carolina. SURA contact: Gary Crane.
NSF Middleware Initiative: The NMI Integration Testbed sites have been actively evaluating and integrating NMI middleware for the past eight months as part of the NSF Middleware Initiative. Ongoing status and activities of the Testbed, including progress reports, case studies, context documents, and workshop announcements can be found on the NMI website. A results-oriented Testbed workshop, Experiences in Middleware Deployment, will be held Tuesday, April 8, 2003, preceding the Internet2 members' meeting in Arlington, Virginia, to disseminate lessons learned in the Testbed to the broader community. No registration fee, but attendance is limited. SURA contact: Mary Fran Yafchak.
ViDe (Video Development Initiative): The annual SURA/ViDe Digital Video workshop will be held March 24 - 26, at GCATT in Atlanta. Workshop topics include digital video applications and projects - both real world applications and emerging technologies - and half-day in-depth breakouts in areas of special interest, including H.323 operations, streaming/VOD, and trends from the developer community. The keynote speaker will be Gordon Castle, senior VP of CNN Technology and a leading executive behind the creation of an all-digital production environment at CNN, a multi-year, multi-million-dollar project that is a cornerstone of CNN's technology plan. SURA contact: Sue Fratkin.
Coastal Research
SCOOP: SURA's proposal for the initial phase (FY03) of SCOOP ($1M from Department of Defense, Office of Naval Research) will begin the integration process to enable an information technology infrastructure, including distributed computational and data management grids, and to facilitate the assimilation of real-time coastal data into community models throughout the region. While initially limited to five data hubs and three model hubs, SCOOP will eventually include hubs spanning the entire East Coast and Gulf of Mexico. SURA contact: Don Wright.
SGA Resolution supporting SCOOP: At its February 2003 meeting, the Southern Governors' Association (SGA) approved the resolution sponsored by Louisiana Governor M.L. "Mike" Foster, Jr. in support of SCOOP. This update of the resolution originally passed by the SGA in 2002 reflects the initial phase of SCOOP to "implement an open-access network of distributed sensors, linked via an ultra-fast network to state-of-the-art computing systems that track and model the southeastern coastal zone in real time and provide components of a more comprehensive coastal security infrastructure."
Tech Transfer and Commercialization
Dingman Center partnership: SURA has entered into a partnership arrangement with the Dingman Center for Entrepreneurship at the University of Maryland's Smith School of Business. The Dingman Center will be working with private sector consultants and the MBA classes to create market analyses and propose commercialization strategies for SURA-owned technologies with commercial potential. The Dingman Center has an outstanding reputation for creating results-oriented output and has strong connections to the investment and entrepreneur communities in the Washington, DC area. SURA contact: Matt Thomas.
Optical Fiber Sensors Workshop: SURA is sponsoring an Optical Fiber Sensors Workshop, the joint effort of a working group that includes CNU, ODU and NASA, which will focus on photonic band gap fibers and other novel fiber sensors available at the NASA Langley Research Center. The workshop, open to all interested parties, is intended to disseminate new research results and attract research participation from other institutions and commercial entities. Principal investigator: Martin Buoncristiani, Christopher Newport University; SURA contact: Matt Thomas.
Technology Commercialization Opportunities: SURA is continuing to define and explore its intellectual property portfolio for commercial opportunities. A market-based listing of available opportunities for investors or commercial licensing and development partners will be available soon on the SURA website and will be distributed to identified potential strategic partners. SURA contact: Matt Thomas.
Executive, Management, Administrative
Board of Trustees meeting and business: The Board of Trustees will hold its Spring 2003 meeting on Tuesday and Wednesday, April 29 and 30, 2003, at the Wyndham Washington, DC. A block of rooms is held at the hotel for accommodations during this meeting. Board members will be receiving annual Board information including FY02 financial audit, conflicts of interest disclosure forms, standing committee assignments, and other announcements. SURA contact: Elizabeth Lawson.
Board trustee appointments: SURA welcomes two new trustees to the Board: Florida Atlantic University's VP for Research and Graduate Studies, Larry Lemanski and Georgia State University's Director of IS&T Planning and Initiatives, Mary Jane Casto. SURA also welcomes Charles Glashausser (Rutgers University), Donald Geesaman (Argonne National Laboratory), and Alex Dzierba (Indiana University) as Trustees-at-Large to serve on the Jefferson Lab Committee. SURA contact: Elizabeth Lawson.
SURA CFO: Peter Bjonerud joins the SURA leadership team as CFO and Corporate Treasurer. Bjonerud is a senior financial executive with experience in both the public and private sectors. Bjonerud comes to SURA after seven years as founder and president of a successful technology-focused corporate finance company and thirteen years with Reed/Elsevier (world's largest scientific, medical and legal publisher) where he held positions over the period as holding company CFO, group president, international treasurer, and senior vice president finance/EDP/manufacturing. SURA contact: Peter Bjonerud.
