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As many of you know, Nancy Grimm is now in Washington D.C. and starting her two-year rotation as a NSF Program Officer.  Nancy has been the Lead PI of CAP LTER for 12 years and, along with Chuck Redman, has been an indefatigable, devoted, and essential source of excitement, intellectual energy, and vision for the program.  For this, she has earned and deserves our heartfelt thanks and respect.  Fortunately for us all, her absence will only be temporary and she will be returning to ASU regularly during the next two years. In the meantime, I will be working closely with Chuck to lead the CAP LTER Program into its third phase of funding (which technically begins December 1) and beyond.  There is no way I could possibly pretend to fill Nancy’s size 18 pumps, and I have no intention of trying (the picture says it all!)!  On the other hand, I have no intention of being a mere caretaker of the program in Nancy’s absence.  My goal is to return [to Nancy’s leadership] a CAP LTER Program that is even more focused, cutting edge, successful, respected, and relevant than the one she left to me.  My plan for accomplishing this will be evolving, of course.  Some of the first initiatives and minor changes will include:
  • I need to learn as much about CAP as I can as quickly as possible.  To that end, I will be scheduling 30-minute meetings with most of our senior scientists/collaborators to learn about your research interests with respect to CAP, how we can better integrate your work into CAP’s big picture, your ideas for CAP, etc.  In short, my agenda for these meetings will be to listen.  Be watching for Marcia’s email to schedule my chat with you (my plan is to have these short meetings in your offices).
  • I would like to help energize and organize the CAP Graduate Student group into a more cohesive unit that encourages productive scientific exchange and social dynamics.  I will be meeting with the group leaders very soon to learn how I may best facilitate this.
  • I would like to extend the reach of CAP’s research and professional interactions by enhancing our ties to: 1) the Baltimore Ecosystem Study program; 2) to other LTER sites with significant urban research agendas (e.g., the Florida Coastal Everglades program), and; 3) to some of the new ULTRA-Ex programs.  I also would like to see us increase the societal relevance of CAP research here in the Phoenix Valley.  In both cases, I welcome ideas for how to best support these goals.
  • I would like to tweak CAP’s regular All Scientist Meetings, beginning in Spring 2011.  In my vision, these will be bi-semester meetings focused on integration (within CAP and with other urban programs) and an open exchange of ideas.  As such, we will be calling these meetings “CAP Integration Incubators”.  The format and goals of these meetings has not been decided, though, and I welcome all ideas that you may have.
  • I would like to tweak the Annual CAP Symposium a bit, beginning with the January 2011 symposium.  We will be expanding this into a 1.5 day event (the afternoon of Wednesday January 12 and all day Thursday January 13) and are working on plans for poster sessions that will be thematic and interactive.  This annual symposium will now be called the CAP All Scientists Meeting, since our goal is to bring as many CAP researchers, students, and staff together as possible.
  • Recently, the Director of the Global Institute of Sustainability (GIOS), Rick Shangraw, confirmed to me that GIOS and ASU continue their strong pride in and support of the CAP LTER Program.  The new GIOS administrations’ commitment to the CAP endeavor remains strong, which is reassuring.  I am currently working with Rick on a strategic plan for expanding CAP’s reach (financially and scientifically) and relevance (aiding and abetting sustainable social change).  Stay tuned for more on this front soon.
My intention is not that these initiatives represent wholesale change in the general direction of the CAP enterprise.  Rather, I see these as small changes that will enhance the stature, impact, and influence of CAP science and experience.  I ask for your patience with my rather steep learning curve and remind you that I am always interested in your ideas.  My door is always open! Thanks for your support, Dan Childers