NEON Welcomes New Partner in New USGS Powell Center
Yesterday NEON staff, officials from the US Geological Survey (USGS), local Colorado politicians, and CSU administration and faculty celebrated the opening of a new USGS-based natural science synthesis center.
The John Wesley Powell Center for Analysis and Synthesis will bring together USGS scientists, colleagues from other government agencies and academia to focus on complex natural resources challenges. Center research will contribute to large-scale decision making for natural resources.
The USGS is one of NEON's most important Federal Agency partners, and the Center will help the USGS and NEON collaborate in bringing large-scale ecological data into natural resource management. The types of synthesis and analysis that the Center will promote can both use and guide NEON programs.
"The Powell Center is a place where scientists bring mature data sets and engage in creative interdisciplinary analysis and synthesis to advance the state of earth system science knowledge. While NEON will contribute data to the effort in years to come, NEON's broad scientific vision and its cadre of systems-thinking professionals make it a natural for collaboration with USGS today," said Jill Baron, the Center Director.
The center will be based in the existing USGS facilities located near CSU campus in Fort Collins.
Powell is considered the father of Western geographic exploration. He is best known for his exploration of the Grand Canyon, and nearby Lake Powell is named in his honor.