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Program NewsChemical OceanographyDuring the past twelve months, the Chemical Oceanography Program (CO) has continued to receive and fund research proposals covering a wide topical range. The funding rate for the past three core program panels has varied between 19% and 25%. Despite the topical breadth, there has been a marked increase in the number of proposals addressing various aspects of three areas: the marine nitrogen cycle, coastal ground-water-seawater interactions, and iron geochemistry. In particular, the number of high-quality iron-related proposals submitted to CO has increased so rapidly that it has become a challenge to find the optimal balance between meeting the most critical needs for research in this rapidly growing field of marine biogeochemistry and maintaining the flexibility required to support cutting-edge research in other emerging domains of the discipline. Our core Program panels and mail reviewers have played pivotal roles in helping us strike what we believe is the proper balance, but it is never easy to decline funding for a hot research idea -- and our principal investigators rarely send us any other kind! What are your thoughts on this? We’d like to know! In cooperation with our long-time JGOFS partner, the Biological Oceanography Program, we are now running the next-to-last proposal competition for the U.S. JGOFS Synthesis and Modeling Project (SMP). As in the past three years, the SMP proposal panel met during the same week as the core Ocean Science Research Section panels in November, 2000. Although the final call for proposals for the U.S. JGOFS Program will come in August or September, 2001, we anticipate that the two immensely popular and productive time-series activities initiated under U.S. JGOFS -- HOT and BATS -- will continue after the parent program closes in CY 2003-2004. Ocean Carbon Cycle Research: The Next DecadeCO continues to play a major leadership role in the planning and implementation of global carbon cycle research at NSF and beyond. The pace of global carbon cycle research planning has accelerated markedly in CY 2000 in the federal agencies as well as in the academic community, and the Program has formed supportive contacts throughout both of these spheres. During CY 2000, especially during the last few months, several community-based ocean carbon cycle planning activities have not only flourished but, moreover, have also begun to work together to help the Division of Ocean Sciences develop plans for the next decade of carbon cycle research. The community can expect to see major steps forward in the planning and implementation of ocean carbon cycle research opportunities at NSF in 2001 and 2002. In the interim, we en-courage interested parties to become acquainted with progress that has been made in major segments of the U.S. carbon cycle research community by checking the following web sites:
The above do not constitute an exhaustive set of resources on planning in carbon cycle research, but any oceanographer seriously interested in the subject should be acquainted with them -- as well as with carbon-related topics in the four ocean sciences “futures” reports (APROPOS, FOCUS, FUMAGES, OEUVRE). Personnel NewsIn July, 2000, Dr. Peter Milne of the Rosenstiel School of Marine and Atmospheric Sciences (University of Miami) began a two-year rotation in the Chemical Oceanography Program as Associate Program Director. Peter’s background encompasses both ocean and atmospheric chemistry, and he has experience in the biomedical end of chemistry as well, which should help strengthen our programmatic purview. Dr. Simone Metz finished the first or her two years as Associate Program Director in October and has quickly settled into the Program and the Division as a seasoned program officer. Simone, with assistance from Peter, has done a marvelous job of improving and maintaining our mail and panel review activities. Don Rice (drice@nsf.gov) |
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