Project Office News: October 2005

NEON in Process

The National Network Design Committee met October 17-21, 2005 in Washington, DC, to discuss ongoing NEON planning. On October 18, the NNDC briefed the NEON Advisory Board, and received input from the Board on a range of design issues.

Two NEON milestones are about to be passed:

• NEON, Inc. will soon be incorporated as a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization. NEON, Inc. is designed as a participatory entity with institutional membership. In addition to refining bylaws and articles, the NNDC agreed that the NEON Senior Management Team will serve as the initial Board of Directors, and that Board rotation will begin one year after the start of NEON construction. Full NEON, Inc. details will be posted at www.neoninc.org after incorporation.

• Drafts of two key NEON planning documents--the Integrated Science and Education Plan (ISEP) and the Network and Informatics Baseline Design (NIBD)--have been circulated to the NEON Board and submitted to NSF. Versions of both documents will be available in the coming months.

Posted by djohnson on Wednesday October 26, at 10AM

Hands-On NEON Mapping

Maps containing the data used to develop the draft NEON climate domains are now available, along with an interactive tool for exploring the maps. The web-based mapping application was created by William Hargrove and Forrest Hoffman of the Environmental Sciences Division of Oak Ridge National Laboratory. Hargrove is the developer of the mapping technique used to generate the NEON domain map. Users can zoom in, pan to areas of interest, and make comparisons between maps without losing their extent of interest when viewing the 30 original environmental variables, as well as the nine derived ouput maps. [Open mapping application]

Posted by dkirschtel on Wednesday October 5, at 9AM

In Memoriam: Raymond O'Connor

Dr. Raymond O'Connor, a professor in the Department of Wildlife Ecology at the University of Maine, died on September 29, 2005, at 61. A scientist of broad interests and expertise, Dr. O'Connor held degrees in physics and zoology, and conducted laboratory and site-specific studies in avian and marine physiology. His ecological contributions included extensive work on pesticide regulations and service with technical working groups focused on sustainable forestry, critical habitat, and species recovery. Dr. O'Connor's ecological credentials, combined with his expertise in modeling and large database analyses, also made him a valued member of the IBRCS Working Group (Infrastructure for Biology at Regional to Continental Scales), an AIBS project that prepared the way for the current NEON planning effort.

Posted by djohnson on Monday October 3, at 2PM