February 19, 2001

Highlights

• Funding from the National Science Foundation of $2,000,018 is now in place for Rich Lutz's IMAX project on "Volcanoes of the Abyss". In addition, 18 dives with the submersible Alvin (total funding for these dives is approximately $1 million) have been approved by NSF and will take place this coming August along the Mid-Atlantic Ridge. Results to date and future plans for the IMAX film were presented this past week at a special symposium of the AAAS meeting in San Francisco. This session was attended by Dr. Rita Colwell, Director of the National Science Foundation. An article summarizing the results appeared on the front page of the Newark Star Ledger.
• Working with industry partner CODAR Ocean Sensors, Josh Kohut, John Fracassi, Liz Creed and John Zlotnick completed the first ship-to-shore test of a bistatic HF Radar by broadcasting from the Arabella anchored 20 km offshore and receiving the scattered signals at the Brandt Beach CODAR site. The first test of a long-range CODAR broadcast from the retired LORAN-A antenna in Wildwood also was conducted with the Coast Guard. Sage Lictenwalner hitched a free ride on the Coast Guard roll-over boat for the beam pattern measurements.
• Jennifer Francis was awarded a 2-year grant from NOAA and the Cooperative Institute for Arctic Research (U. of AK, Fairbanks) to investigate relationships among laterally transported heat and moisture and cloud properties in the Arctic using several satellite data sets. The work will be performed in collaboration with colleagues at the University of Wisconsin.
• Sybil Seitzinger and Monica Mazurek received the third year of funding from the Environmental Biogeochemistry Program at NSF for their research project entitled "Composition and Bioavailability of Dissolved Organic Nitrogen in Atmospheric Deposition."
• Andrew Laursen and Sybil Seitzinger received a 2 year grant from the USDA for studies of "Denitrification in rivers."

Meetings Attended

• Karl Nordstrom gave the keynote address at the workshop "Can Humans and Coastal Landforms Co-exist," sponsored by the Woods Hole Sea Grant Program, Woods Hole, MA, January 24, 2001.
• Scott Glenn, Hernan Arango and Kate Hedstrom presented talks on their research at the annual SPAWAR/ONR Joint Internal Program Review at Stennis Space Center in Mississippi.
• Sybil Seitzinger, Hilairy Hartnett, Tomoko Komada and Tracy Wiegner attended the ASLO meeting in Albuquerque, NM, the week of February 12-16.
• Fred Grassle attended the Census of Marine Life Steering Committee meeting in Bergen, Norway, February 13-15.

Let's Welcome

• Please welcome our new Special Projects Administrator, Rebecca Seidenfeld. Rebecca has an advanced degree in marine science, plus expertise with science education programs, communications and marketing science programs. This combination of talent will allow her to support IMCS' fund-raising efforts, media relations and special projects. Please stop by her office (Room 104J, Tel. 2-6555 x563) to welcome her to the Institute.