Deadline for Fall AGU Meeting Abstract Submission Fast Approaching

Mark your calendars today to attend the 2008 AGU Fall Meeting! This year's meeting in San Francisco on December 15-19, 2008 is expected to attract over 15,000 geophysicists from around the world providing an opportunity for researchers, teachers, students, and consultants to present and review the latest issues affecting the Earth, the planets, and their environments in space. The deadline for submitting abstracts is September 10. Please see this year's hydrology sessions.

CUAHSI will be featuring demonstrations of the Hydrologic Information System this year at its booth. A town hall meeting and reception is also planned. More details to follow.

There are numerous special sessions of interest to the CUAHSI Community that you may wish to contribute an abstract to. In addition to the numerous proposed special sessions in hydrology, we would like to call your attention to a session in Public Affairs (PA03) entitled "How Can the Science Community Help Local and Regional Decision Makers Who are Exploring or Implementing Adaptation Options to Climate Change?" organized by NCAR director Eric Barron and UCAR vice president for corporate affairs Jack Fellows. It will examine how local universities and decision makers are working together to adapt to anticipated climate change impacts and explore how these independent activities might help form a national network or model for adaptation. If you have interesting policy research or a project that is partnering with local and regional decision makers to deal with climate adaptation, mitigation, or even geoengineering, and you or a colleague would like to participate in this session, please submit an abstract at the URL for submitting abstracts above.

Nominations Open for CUAHSI Board of Directors

All representatives from CUAHSI member institutions are eligible to run for the CUAHSI Board. (Note that representatives from affiliate members and from international affiliates are not eligible, however.). Claire Welty is chairing the nominations committee this year which also includes George Hornberger, Eric Wood, and Juan Valdes. If you are interested in running for the CUAHSI Board or wish to nominate another representative, please contact any member of the nominating committee by October 9. To read more about the formal process, please refer to the CUAHSI By-Laws, Articles III, Section 4 and VIII, Section 4.

NSF Appoints New Division Director for EAR

The National Science Foundation (NSF) Directorate for Geosciences has appointed Robert Detrick of the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI) as its new director of the Division of Earth Sciences. Detrick is currently a senior scientist and vice president for Marine Facilities and Operations at WHOI, and will begin his NSF position on Nov. 3, 2008.

"We are delighted that Bob Detrick will be joining NSF in this important national leadership role," said Tim Killeen, NSF assistant director of Geosciences. "This appointment augurs well for the earth sciences, and the geosciences in general. I'm looking forward to working closely with him."

Detrick is a geophysicist and seismologist. His research has focused primarily on the structure and evolution of oceanic crust, the size, depth and physical properties of ridge crest magma chambers, and the effect of hotspots on the thermal evolution of the lithosphere. [more information]

Community Modeling in Hydrologic Science: Scoping Workshop held 26-27 March in Washington, D.C.

As one of two major new initiatives for its next 5-year phase, the Consortium of Universities for the Advancement of Hydrologic Science, Inc. (CUAHSI), is proposing to launch a major effort toward the development of a Community Hydrologic Modeling Platform (CHyMP), which will support a range of research and applications in water cycle science.

Recently, the National Science Foundation (NSF), the National Academy of Sciences (NAS), and CUAHSI jointly sponsored a workshop for CHyMP. The goal of this first workshop was to survey the range of perspectives on the need for community modeling in hydrology, as well as on the scope, form, and requirements of such an activity. Planned outcomes from this meeting are the establishment of a CHyMP working group with a report to the community on the rationale and preliminary strategy for undertaking community modeling in hydrology. This working group will also be responsible for the development of two larger, community-based workshops that will lead to the development of a formal proposal to the NSF for the development and implementation of the platform. [more information]

Water Documentary Set for Theatrical Release

FLOW (For the Love of Water) is scheduled for release around the country this fall, and it may have a similar impact as Al Gore's film An Inconvenient Truth. A schedule of cities and the film trailer is available at the film's web site.

FLOW raises a number of policy issues, chiefly equity issues about who owns what has typically been a common resource and privatization of water supply, particularly in Third World countries. Regardless of one's political stance on these issues, there are a number of science issues that are raised yet only partially addressed in the film. You might want to consider organizing discussion groups around the film when it appears in your city.

After viewing the film, if you are interested in receiving a DVD, please let us know. CUAHSI will be happy to contact the producers to determine what licensing options are available. [more information | view the trailer]