Institute Management Team Meeting s1

Institute Management Team Meeting Thursday, September 27, 2012 Attending: Brian Anderson, Jacque Dalzell (representing Mike Demissie), Libby Johnston, Don McKay, Gary Miller, Luis Rodriguez (representing Manohar Kulkarni), Bill Shilts, Steve Wald, Angie Wisehart

1. Midwest Carbon Sequestration Science Conference Bill reported that last week he attended portions of the carbon sequestration conference held at the I Hotel & Conference Center. Many different countries were represented at the conference including Korea, South Africa, Japan, Canada, and Germany. Representatives from DOE were there as well. Don reported that the DOE reps. were very pleased with the amount of international representation.

Don also reported that Rob will continue to do a lot of international travel, collaborating with other countries that are interested in carbon sequestration.

2. Institutional Advancement Meeting Gary reported that he and Bill met with representatives from the Office of the Vice Chancellor for Institutional Advancement to discuss advancement needs for the Institute. They suggested that a list of interests/research projects be put together for the Regional Director’s to present to foundations. Adding educational components to the projects could be of interest to various foundations.

3. Advisory Board Collections Memo Bill reported that in response to the collections memo from the Institute’s Advisory Board, Vice Chancellor Schiffer has called a meeting on October 9 to discuss the Institute’s collections issues. Bill, Gary and Vice Chancellor Schiffer will be meeting with Craig Bazzani (Chair of the Advisory Board), Randy Kangas (Vice President for Planning & Budgeting) and Mike Andrechak (Associate Chancellor).

4. Meeting with College of Engineering Dean Gary reported that he met with the new Interim Dean of Engineering, Mike Bragg. Gary wanted to introduce himself to the new Dean, and provide him background on the Institute. Gary also asked the Dean if he would be willing to serve on the Advisory Board, replacing Ilesanmi Adesida. Dean Bragg did agree to serve on the Board. He also agreed to distribute information about the upcoming Prairie Lightning Mini-Symposium.

5. Lightning Symposiums Gary reported that tomorrow the Symposium Planning Committee will meet to review the Mini-Symposium, and to begin planning for the November Symposium. A call for talks and posters will be sent out soon. Gary appreciated everyone’s efforts in making the Mini-Symposium a success.

Steve reported that he has received good ideas for training for the speakers. Gary added that the Training Subcommittee will offer a couple of different dates for training, as well as offer training for poster presentations. Steve added that he thinks the training is very valuable and noticed improvements in the talks given by those who attended training for the Mini-Symposium.

6. Unified Communications (UC) Costs Gary reported that the Institute will receive a break on off-campus UC costs. He does not know what that break will be yet.

7. Earth Knowledge Gary indicated that he thinks there should be a meeting to discuss this initiative. Where the Institute is going, and the use of CyberGIS, is inter-related. Brian serves on the Steering Committee, and believes there is still a lot of work to do. Don added that it’s attractive in terms of a marketing tool.

8. Prairie Research Institute Advisory Board Angie reminded the group that the next Advisory Board meeting is Thursday, November 1.

Brian suggested, and the Management Team agreed, that it would be interesting to have an expert on campus give a presentation on the state’s economy and budget. Bill is going to ask Fred Giertz (Interim Director, Illinois Government & Public Affairs) if he would be interested in speaking at the Board meeting.

The Directors will each select one person from their Survey to give a lightning talk to the Board.

Bill will ask the representatives from the agencies serving on the Board to report to Bill and the Directors what more they would like to see from the Surveys.

FOLLOW-UP Fred Giertz has agreed to speak at the Board meeting.

9. Institute/Surveys Brochures Libby reported that she is continuing to work on the Institute brochure. A quick print was done in order to have copies on hand for the Mini-Symposium, but the brochure is being tweaked for a final print. After that, she will continue with the INHS brochure and move forward with the other Surveys’ brochures.

10. Fall Lecture Series Steve circulated a copy of the VIP invitation that will go out for the Andrew Revkin lecture on October 24. Sara Olson (ISWS) is working on the artwork for the rest of the publicity package.

11. INHS Update Brian reported that he has been talking with Eric Rozier, who was a PhD student in NCSA but is now at the University of Miami. He specializes in information storage for big data, and is looking for data use on a large grant from IBM. He may use the Advanced Digitization Project.

Brian reported that he has a meeting with NGRREC tomorrow. They’re looking at creating a data center related to the Mississippi River from the Great Lakes to the Gulf of Mexico.

12. ISGS Update Don reported that he is collecting contacts for the seismic data release.

Don also reported that he is still trying to get the conference call set up with the Illinois Attorney General’s Office so that they can be briefed on seismic impact as a result of hydraulic fracturing in Southern Illinois.

13. ISTC Update Luis reported that Bob Iverson is retiring at the end of September.

Luis reported that this past Monday a meeting took place with personnel from the Lt. Governor’s Office to discuss the logistics for the Indoor Climate Research and Training Center opening.

Luis reported that Manohar will attend the Illinois Counties Solid Waste Management Conference a week from Friday.

Luis reported that Manohar has been asked to serve on the Office of Technology Management’s Advisory Board.

Luis reported that he met with the Vice President of a waste management plant in Puerto Rico (Luis’ home country) to discuss ways to collaborate on recycling the waste from the plant and to learn more about this technology which is of interest to Illinois.