^USADBs fl?£E LIBRARY The Palisades Newsletter 10964 November 1989 • No. 115 From the Staff: 10964's appearance is evolving. Thanks to John Converse for his interest, time, and expertise and to his computer and software, we are able to experiment with our format. As usual, we appreciate hearing from our readers and will value your comments on this phase of the newsletter. Welcome IBM! by Diana Keif ur new corporate neighbor, Jack Hammond, was established plex computer controls for each 'IBM Palisades Advanced to "increase our customers' abil­ classroom, I felt as though I were OBusiness Institute, is now ity to direct and manage their in­ studying the instruments of a fully operating in its sprawling vestment in information systems space shuttle. The 22 state-of-the- woodland setting here on Route for competitive advantage." In art classrooms range in size from 9W. Since late April, IBM cus­ other words, they teach strate­ 20 to 94 seats, all with fixed birds- tomer executives have been at­ gies rather than keyboard tech­ eye maple desks. There are an tending classes, termed "events," niques so that top executives can additional 21 briefing and break­ in a learning center which re­ understand how their computer out rooms, as well as strategi­ places and consolidates similar systems can help them achieve cally located glass enclosed cof­ IBM programs previously located their marketing objectives. IBM fee pavilions. in five other U.S. sites. customer executives, accompa­ But IBM Palisades is more Connie Nicolosi, local nied by their marketing repre­ than just a schoolhouse. It is a Communications Administrator, sentatives, are treated to a pro­ full service conference center with recently invited me for a tour and gram of "events" lasting from one about 200 Marriott employees brief view of the institute on be­ to five days. The teachers are providing first-class hotel and half of 10964. "We are happy to business professionals with top restaurant facilities for IBM. In be here and look forward to being academic credentials. the windowed dining room over­ good corporate neighbors," com­ The learning center fea­ looking the woods and pond, mented Nicolosi upon welcoming tures the latest advanced tech­ breakfast and dinner are served me. nology including computer con­ formally with silver and linens. I Nicolosi explained that the trolled audio-visual media with was lucky enough to be an in­ Institute, with a current staff of student response keyboards at vited guest for a delicious lunch about 140 under the direction of each desk. Examining the com­ Continued on Page 8 Page 2 try." His perception of the vast pos­ sibilities in those fields—they have provided the basic data for under­ standing both earth history (espe­ cially plate tectonics) and most of our current environmental con­ Forty Years On cerns—proved so fruitful that no one institution could now conceiva­ bly monopolize them. But Lamont "The Lamont-Doherty Geological is very much in the forefront. Observatory" Ewing was lucky in that he had access to much equipment de­ by Roger Jellinek veloped in World War II, and very cheaply. Everyone who went to study at Lamont had to work on gathering data, and Ewing's ships, Many residents may have Lamont as scientists, technicians first the converted yacht Vema, and visited the Lamont campus at the and staff. Many Palisades teenagers then the recently retired Robert D. annual Open House, or they may have worked there in the summer, Conrad (operated by Lamont, but have seen Lamont seismologists and quite a few have cruised aboard owned by the U.S. Navy), ranged interviewed and consulted on net­ Lamont ships. literally millions of miles around work news after major earthquakes. It was quite a few years But many are still somewhat mys­ later, in 1981, that I was introduced Continued Top of Page 3 tified by the arcane sounding to Lamont's new Director, Barry Lamont-Doherty Geological Ob­ Raleigh, and because of my jour­ servatory of Columbia University." nalistic and publishing experience, Why the We asked Roger Jellinek, who is he invited me to produce a bro­ Editor of the Lamont newsletter, chure about Lamont, and after that to write a series of articles on the a quarterly newsletter that is sent Rush? Observatory for 10964. to some 4,000 scientists around the by Patti Katz world. I soon found myself in a I'd probably been living in state of perpetual astonishment— I am quite concerned Palisades a year before I stumbled at my ignorance of a world-class with what seems to me to be the across Lamont, looking for a way institution right on my doorstep, at disregard for speed limits in our to the Skunk Hollow waterfall. Its the range and ambition of its en­ community. After speaking to deeply wooded setting and formal terprise, and at its unique form of other residents who feel like­ landscaping atop the Palisades organizational anarchy. wise, I feel it's time to speak out cliffs made the incongruous black­ To be fair, Lamont's isola­ about the situation. top ribbon connecting a rough mix tion had been purposeful. Its Now that the school year of vaguely military sheds and some founder, Maurice ("Doc") Ewing is well underway, we need to be modern concrete campus architec­ was a driving genius, tremendously extra cautious in the posted 15 ture especially shocking. Embed­ energetic and hugely ambitious; m.p.h. school zones on Wash­ ded in this haphazard 100-acre three-quarters of tiie surface of the ington Spring Road and Oak lunar colony was an older stone globe was unexplored, and he Tree Road. Residents who live mansion with its assortment of aimed to do it all. There simply within these zones say the 15 fieldstone outbuildings set in the wasn't time to be sociable. While m.p.h. limit is usually ignored. remains of a grand estate (the Lamont was part of Columbia Uni­ Please, obey this limit—our "weekend cottage" of the Thomas versity, he thoroughly enjoyed the children's safety depends on it. Lamont family, built in 1928 and independence that distance from I'm sure we all must donated to Columbia University by the Manhattan campus gave him. admit that at one time or an­ the Lamont family in 1948). I didn't In his first annual report in 1950, other we may have been in too give much thought to what it was he wrote, "It is the intention of the much of a hurry. But again I about, and over the years I rarely entire staff of the Lamont Geologi­ ask, why the rush? This is a heard it mentioned by my neigh­ cal Observatory to make this re­ beautiful community—let's take bors. search unit the world center for more time to enjoy it, and avert In fact, many Palisades resi­ geophysical research and study in a possible tragedy. dents have worked and do work at marine geophysics and geochemis­ ===== Page 3 the globe, gathering an incompa­ earthquake. One of Lamont's 400 technical and administrative rable database. Ewing himself de­ founding seismologists was a stu­ staff. The Observatory is somewhat veloped a piston corer with which dent named Frank Press, now loosely organized into four Divi­ to sample the sediments, and President of the American Acad­ sions: Marine Geology and Geo­ Lamont now has the largest archive emy of Sciences. Much of the pio­ physics, Seismology, Geochemistry, of deep-sea sediment cores in the neering work on the use of chemi­ and Oceans and Climates (i.e. an­ world. cal tracers in the sea to research cient as well as modern). The range Lamont benefited from the the long-term movement of ocean of research is global (as well as the Cold War as well. One of Ewing's waters (essential for understand­ Moon and other planets): from the many specialties was the study of ing climate) exploited the fallout synergies in the life of ocean bot­ sound waves underwater—of con­ from nuclear test explosions. tom-dwelling microscopic beasts to siderable interest to the Navy for However, it is important to the workings of climate cycles con­ detecting and hiding submarines; note that Lamont has undertaken trolled by the sun, from the "moun­ sonar waves are one of the princi­ very little direct military research, tains" at the center of the earth, to pal research tools in geophysics, and with few exceptions its scien­ the precise configuration of super- both in the ocean and the conti­ tists have been free to publish their continents hundreds of millions of nental crust. The Navy also fi­ data and interpretations as they years ago, from the modeling of oil nanced the famous first detailed please. What direct military re­ and gas migration to the precise maps of the ocean floor produced search there was spun off during measurement of acid rain via the by Marie Tharp and Bruce Heezen. the campus turmoil of 1968 in the evidence of tree rings, from earth­ Gravity measurements (variations form of the Palisades Geophysical quake prediction to the exact dat­ and anomalies indicate geological Institute (based in West Nyack), ing of mass extinctions, and from features in the Earth's crust—of­ and has had no relationship to the modeling of the greenhouse ten totally invisible at the surface) Lamont since. gases to tracing the PCBs in the are vital for guiding intercontinen­ Today Lamont-Doherty Hudson River. tal ballistic missiles. Lamont's seis­ (Doherty was added to the name in mology was given a strong boost 1969, in recognition of a major gift) by nuclear testing in the Aleu­ has a staff of some 600, including Next Time: Earthquake tians—the Government wanted to 110 Senior (postdoctoral) Scien­ Prediction At Lamont know if the blast would set off an tists, 100 graduate students, and Chicago Divinity School), and had arship.