| Important Updates |
- Nominations for August 2011 Board Election Opens Mid June. Any individual associated with a NEON, Inc. Member Institution in good standing is eligible to submit suggestions for the slate of candidates who will run for elections. See below for more details.
- Fourth Annual NEON, Inc. Membership Meeting (Sep 16, 2011, Boulder, CO). This year's annual meeting will be in Boulder, CO. The meeting is open to individuals from Member Institutions in good standing. NEON, Inc. will also provide limited travel support (covering airfare and lodging) on a competitive basis for early career scientists. See below for more details.
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Welcome
| | We are pleased to welcome our latest member institution: the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (Program in Ecology, Evolution & Conservation Biology), with Dr. Michael Dietze as the institutional representative. |
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Grand Opening of the NEON, Inc. HQ In Boulder, CO
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On Thursday May 19, 2011, Boulder Chamber of Commerce members and U.S. Representative Jared Polis joined NEON, Inc. Board members, employees, and guests for a ribbon cutting ceremony and party to celebrate the new NEON headquarters building. The 80,000 square feet facility in Boulder, CO is currently home to NEON, Inc.'s more than 110 employees, and houses the science, engineering, operations, audit, and calibration/validation laboratories. After brief remarks from Rep. Polis and the ribbon cutting, guests were invited to participate in guided tours of the building, followed by a mixer over food and drinks. Click here to see photos from the event.
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NEON Successfully Completes Pre-construction Review
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NEON has recently completed a Pre-Construction review conducted by an NSF-convened panel on April 4-6, 2011. During this review, the panel carefully reviewed project management, engineering, facilities and civil construction, computing and networking, procurement and contracting, human resources, operations and land-use permitting areas of the project to ensure that NEON is ready to begin construction activities.
The NSF conducts Pre-Construction reviews of large facilities funded through MREFC (Major Research Equipment and Facilities Construction) funds to ensure that the proposed facility's scope can be delivered within an agreed schedule and budget. Reviewers also checked to ensure issues and concerns identified during NEON's Final Design Review (FDR) in November 2009 were addressed and that prototyping activities conducted during the past year had refined budget, processes and building plans.
During the review, a trip to the NEON prototype in Sterling, CO, gave the panel a look at the NEON tower design, and showed the progress made in NEON's civil and electronic engineering design over the past year.
The review panel released a final report this week stating that NEON is ready to begin construction in July 2011 as planned.
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Seeking Your Suggestions for Future Board Members
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The NEON, Inc. bylaws stipulate that the Board of Directors comprise two groups of Directors: At-Large and Membership. The latter group are elected by NEON, Inc.'s institutional member representatives, while the former group are elected by the Directors then in-office. Each Director serves a three-year term.
There are two open seats from the Membership Group open for calendar year 2012 through end of 2014. Any individual from member institutions in good standing is eligible to submit suggestions for the slate of candidates who will run for elections. You may suggest yourself, any faculty member, or research scientist associated with a member institution. The NEON, Inc. Governance Committee (a subgroup of the Board of Directors) will consider your suggestions as they prepare a slate of candidates to stand for election. This step is undertaken to ensure diversity on the Board.
The slate of candidates is then voted upon by the institutional member representatives in mid August, one month before the Fourth Annual Membership Meeting in Boulder, CO on 9/16/201. The results of the election will be announced at the meeting.
A separate announcement will be made in mid June when we will start accepting suggestions from you.
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NEON, Inc. Fourth Annual Membership Meeting (Sep 16, 2011)
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Overview. The Fourth Annual NEON, Inc. Membership Meeting will be held on 9/16/2011 (Friday) in Boulder, CO. We are adopting a revised meeting format in response to your feedback from last year's meeting. This year, the meeting will feature science and education topics suggested in the feedback (to the extent allowed by time and logistics), with loosely structured sessions to allow you to interact with your colleagues. You are always welcomed to send in additional suggestions for topics to Brian Wee (bwee@neoninc.org).
Format. 9/15/2011 (Thursday): We will offer tours of the new NEON facility in the afternoon and possibly other optional events. In the evening, please join the NEON, Inc. Board of Directors for a reception. 9/16/2011 (Friday): Whole day meeting ending at 5pm focused around NEON science and education topics. If you are unable to make it for the NEON facility tour on Thursday, we will try to arrange for another tour on Friday.
Who Should Attend. As with previous years, the lodging for up to two individuals (for up to two nights each) from member institutions in good standing will be covered by NEON, Inc. One of those individuals should preferably be the designated institutional member representative. For the second individual, we encourage member institutions to send an early career scientist.
Travel Support. A limited number of travel support for airfare and lodgings will be available for early career scientists (or, at the institution's discretion, graduate student or post doc fellow). Details on the application process will be released in mid June together with the call for Board nominations.
Next Steps. If you are interested in serving on the program committee for the meeting, please drop Brian Wee (bwee@neoninc.org) a note.
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| Landsat Images and Image Services Available Online |
The US Department of the Interior (DOI) recently announced a new geospatial website, "ChangeMatters" (http://goo.gl/kW1tI) that makes available DOI's satellite imagery more easily accessible to the public. Developed by ESRI, the site allows users to view the Global Land Survey (GLS) Landsat data developed by Interior's U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) and NASA, which spans a time period from 1975 to 2005.
The website leverages the 40-year U.S. government investment in the collection and archiving of continuous worldwide Landsat imagery for earth observation. USGS began providing Landsat imagery to the public for free two years ago. The website permits users to roam the Earth, choose the decade they want to view, and pick from different combinations of Landsat bands, each highlighting a different application. The site also includes a change-detection tool that users can employ to view and map landscape change by decade.
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| NSF and DOE Strategic Plans Released |
On May 10 the National Science Foundation (NSF) released its strategic plan for FY 2011-2016. Empowering the Nation Through Discovery and Innovation: NSF Strategic Plan for Fiscal Years 2011-2016 sets three strategic goals: "transform the frontiers, innovate for society, and perform as a model organization." The agency notes that it will continue to utilize both intellectual merit and broader impacts as metrics for awarding grants and as tools for finding ways "to reach out to the range of communities that play complementary roles in the innovation process and are essential to ensuring the impact of NSF investments."
The Department of Energy released its 2011 Strategic Plan, which aims to serve as a blueprint for DOE to address the nation's energy, environmental, and nuclear challenges. The plan is organized into four categories: catalyzing the transformation of the nation's energy system and securing U.S. leadership in clean energy technologies; maintaining a vibrant U.S. effort in science and engineering as a cornerstone of U.S. economic prosperity; enhancing nuclear security through defense, nonproliferation, and environmental efforts; and establishing a framework to maximize mission success.
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| Biological Sciences and Policy |
Register now to participate in the 3rd Annual Biological Sciences Congressional District Visits event. This national initiative is an opportunity for biologists across the country to meet with their members of Congress to showcase the people, facilities, and equipment that are required to support and conduct scientific research.
The event will be held throughout the month of August 2011, when Representatives and Senators spend time in their Congressional districts and home states. This is an opportunity for scientists, graduate students, representatives of research facilities, and people affiliated with scientific collections to meet with their members of Congress to demonstrate how science is conducted and why a sustained investment in research and education programs must be a national priority. Participating scientists may invite their elected officials to visit their facility or can meet with them at a congressional district office.
This event is organized by the American Institute of Biological Sciences (AIBS: a NEON, Inc. Founding Member Institution). Participation is free, but registration is required and space is limited. For more information and to register, visit http://goo.gl/ekfQ2. |
Solicitations of Potential Interest to the NEON Community
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Please click the respective links to check the original source of information. The abbreviated text below may not reflect amendments to the original announcements, and may not reflect the original intent of the solicitation. The "New" icons indicate recent new announcements (includes announcements for regular solicitations), and not necessarily new programs. These are primarily, though not limited to, NSF solicitations. Not all new announcements are included in the list below.  Informal Science Education (ISE) - Excerpt: "Informal" science education experiences are those that occur outside formal school settings. The ISE program seeks to advance research by building the theoretical and empirical foundations for effective informal STEM learning, furthering the assessment of such learning, and supporting the use of innovative methods to address questions of importance to those who work in informal science education settings. The ISE program invests in the design and development of models, resources, and programs for STEM learning throughout the lifespan. The ISE program seeks to build the STEM and education expertise of informal science education's broad community of professionals, volunteers, parents and caregivers, and all those with potential to facilitate the learning of others.
- Critical Dates: See NSF website.
- Terrestrial Ecosystem Science
- Excerpt: The US Department of Energy, Office of Science, Office of Biological and Environmental Research (BER), is pleased to announced its interest in receiving applications for terrestrial ecosystem science that will improve the understanding of the role of terrestrial ecosystems in climate forcing related to a changing climate. The BER Terrestrial Ecosystem Science (TES) program will consider applications on measurements, experiments, modeling and synthesis that provide improved quantitative and predictive understanding of the terrestrial ecosystem that can affect atmospheric greenhouse gas concentration changes and thereby affect the anthropogenic gas forcing of climate. The emphasis of this Funding Opportunity Announcement (FOA) is to understand the impacts of, and feedbacks from a changing climate on non-managed terrestrial ecosystems. Authors should pose their research applications in the context of representing terrestrial ecosystem processes in earth system models.
- Critical Dates: Pre Applications are required and due June 14, 2011; Full Applications are due September 12, 2011.
- Faculty Early Career Development (CAREER) Program / Presidential Early Career Awards for Scientists and Engineers (PECASE)
- Excerpt: The Faculty Early Career Development (CAREER) Program is a Foundation-wide activity that offers the National Science Foundation's most prestigious awards in support of junior faculty who exemplify the role of teacher-scholars through outstanding research, excellent education and the integration of education and research within the context of the mission of their organizations. Each year NSF selects nominees for the Presidential Early Career Awards for Scientists and Engineers (PECASE) from among the most meritorious recent CAREER awardees. Individuals cannot apply for PECASE. These awards are initiated by the participating federal agencies. At NSF, up to twenty nominees for this award are selected each year from among the PECASE-eligible CAREER awardees who are most likely to become the leaders of academic research and education in the twenty-first century. The White House Office of Science and Technology Policy makes the final selection and announcement of the awardees.
- Critical Dates: See NSF website.
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Introductory NEON Overview Webinar
| Date: 6/13/11
Time: 3pm Eastern
Duration: 60 mins
Registration: http://goo.gl/GKzC9
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Key Dates in 2011
| 5/9: Monthly NEON Introductory Overview Webinar
5/18 - 5/20: NEON, Inc. Board Meeting (Boulder, CO)
8/7 - 8/12: ESA Annual Meeting (Austin, TX)
9/14 - 9/15: NEON, Inc. Board Meeting (Boulder, CO)
9/16: NEON, Inc. Fourth Annual Membership Meeting (Boulder, CO)
9/22 - 9/25: OBFS Annual Meeting (Bodega Bay, CA)
10/24 - 10/28: WCRP Open Science Conference (Denver, CO)
12/5 - 12/9: AGU Annual Meeting (San Francisco, CA)
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