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Staff Notes Monthly

http://www.ucar.edu/communications/staffnotes/0210/[4/30/2013 11:46:38 AM]

Administrators and computer professionals want to provide on-the-jobassistance to their colleagues.

Wouldn’t it be nice if you could ask an experienced UCAR/NCARstaffer for help with a confusing computer program? Or get togetheroccasionally with your peers from other divisions to talk aboutcommon challenges and solutions?

These are some of the goals of UCAR’s peer mentoring initiative,which has been picking up momentum over the last few months. Twogroups—administrators and computer professionals—are working onpilot programs. In addition, Human Resources and F&A’s IT groupare developing an interactive database that would list the expertise ofstaffers willing to serve as learning partners to help their colleagues.

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When in Rome . . .Up-the-HillRaces feature the fast, the slow,and the toga-clad

To dust off a venerable phrase, the23rd annual Up-the-Hill Races

Sunny vacations? No way! RAPscientist leads tourists towardtornadoes

While some vacationers might opt for aluxury cruise in theCaribbean and othersprefer a quietcamping trip inYellowstone,increasing numberswant to spend theirvacations chasing theworst weather they can find—especially

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featured the best of times and theworst of times. And not allcontestants aimed for the former.more

one of nature’s greatest spectacles, thetornado. more

Hiaper workshop on Hiaperinstrumentation

Engineers,scientists, andother staffersinterested inusing the High-performance

Instrumented Airborne Platform forEnvironmental Research shouldconsider registering for the NSFCommunity Workshop onInstrumentation for HIAPER, whichwill be held at NCAR on 4–6November. more

HAO models will give spaceweather forecasts a boost

What if scientistscould provideadvance warning ofupper-atmosphericdisruptions thataffectcommunications satellites or predictspectacular displays of the northernlights? more

An interview with scientistliaison Sasha Madronich

ACD senior scientist SashaMadronich has begun a one-yearterm in the newly created part-timeposition of scientist liaison in theNCAR Directorate. more

Mohan Ramamurthy selected asUnidata director

After a national search, atmosphericscientist Mohan Ramamurthy hasbeen selected as the new director ofthe Unidata Program Center withinUOP. 0210/unidata.html

Time to choose: HR announcesannual enrollment period

This year’s annual enrollment period tosign up for benefits will run from 4November to 2 December. more

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How do clouds form? Where is lightning likely to strike? Why do so many tornadoeshit the Great Plains? These are the sorts of questions children like to ask—and an EOWeb site has the answers. Web Weather for Kids, redesigned over the past year byEO assistant director Susan Foster, former RAP scientist Kevin Petty (now with theNational Transportation Safety Board), and Communications photographer and Webdesigner Carlye Calvin, is an easy-to-navigate site that uses colorful graphics andanimations to explain the science of weather. “The purpose is to engage the kids inthe excitement of dramatic weather events—tornadoes, thunder, clouds, and so on—and to provide resources so they understand the basic science needed for weatherforecasting,” Susan explains. The site, which won a UNISYS prize for online scienceeducation in 2000, is geared for children in grades five through nine, like these middleschoolers at a program at Ames Community College. Highlights include animationsof molecules; science projects, such as creating fog in a jar; and fun trivia questions,like: “Guess which state has the most lightning strikes per year per 10,000 squaremiles?” The site, funded primarily by NSF, UCAR, Friends of UCAR, and theBoulder Valley School District, will be expanding over the next year or so to includepages about hurricanes and blizzards, and a Spanish version is on the way. If youwant to check it out, go to www.ucar.edu/educ_outreach/webweather. (You can evenfind the answer to the lightning question.)

http://www.ucar.edu/educ_outreach/webweather



Staff Notes Monthly

http://www.ucar.edu/communications/staffnotes/0210/mentoring.html[4/30/2013 11:47:58 AM]

Learning from each other:Peer mentoring programs get off the ground

Administrators and computer professionals want to provide on-the-jobassistance to their colleagues.

Wouldn’t it be nice if you could ask an experienced UCAR/NCAR stafferfor help with a confusing computer program? Or get together occasionallywith your peers from other divisions to talk about common challenges andsolutions?

These are some of the goals of UCAR’s peer mentoring initiative, whichhas been picking up momentum over the last few months. Two groups—administrators and computer professionals—are working on pilot programs.In addition, Human Resources and F&A’s IT group are developing aninteractive database that would list the expertise of staffers willing to serveas learning partners to help their colleagues.

NCAR director Tim Killeen, who is working on a separate mentoringinitiative for scientists, says it’s important for all staffers to have theopportunity to learn from their peers. “I feel that we ought to be a learningorganization, and mentoring is an aspect of that,” he explains. “Everybodyon all levels should feel enabled by the organization to expand.”

The mentoring initiatives began taking form last year, when HR held anumber of employee focus groups to discuss professional developmentopportunities at UCAR. Staffers particularly expressed interest indeveloping peer mentoring systems that would allow them to learn fromother people in the same job families. Since the computer andadministrative staffers expressed the largest interest in peer mentoring, thePresident’s Council chose them as pilot groups and asked them to set upmentoring models.

The administrators set up a steering group, now headed by Barb Petruzzi(PPS). They held open meetings with mentoring experts, including ATD

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director Dave Carlson and SOARS director Tom Windham. Instead ofusing the term “mentoring,” they decided to make their learning process abit less formal by naming themselves “Coaching Peers”—which translatesinto an easy-to- remember acronym, CoPs. “What we want to do is keepthis alive and not let it go by the wayside,” Barb explains. “We’re gettingthe word out. The networking in our group is pretty incredible.”

Left to right: Cheryl Cristanelli, Barb Petruzzi, and Kristian Woyna.

The administrators have compiled a list of people willing to spend timecoaching their peers about budgeting, personnel management, and otheradministrative issues. They’re also planning a series of talks byadministrative experts, from both within and outside the organization.Although no one has yet signed up for actual coaching, the administratorsalready are benefiting just by spending time together and informally helpingeach other with such issues as public speaking.

For their part, the computer professionals formed the ProfessionalAssociation of Computing and Technology (PACT) and are proceedingwith a two-pronged strategy. One aim is to establish a Web site that willdescribe the institution’s computer infrastructure, as well as staffers andinitiatives. “Employees can go to one place to get an overview ofcomputing directions for the entire organization,” explains Kristian Woyna(F&A), who chairs the steering committee. “Through our Web site, theycan find resources, identify an individual who can help them with a specificquestion, or find a mentor.”

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The other aim is to bring together computer professionals from eachdivision, either for formal presentations or for informal networking. “We’rea very busy profession, and it will help us to actually visit with each other,find out what others are up to, and make the spontaneous connections thatcan lead to information exchanges,” Kristian says. Both computingprofessionals and people who have an interest in or work with computingare encouraged to become involved.

Both the pilot groups are collaborating with HR and IT on the developmentof a skills-and-learning-exchange database listing the specialities ofstaffers throughout the institution who are willing to lend a hand to theirpeers. “Let’s say I know Excel spreadsheets up and down,” says CherylCristanelli, who is overseeing the mentoring initiative for HR. “I’d add myname to the Skills/Learning Exchange as a learning partner for Excel fordeveloping formulas. I’m now available as a resource for anyone seekingcoaching or assistance in this area. If someone is seeking assistance in thisarea, they could connect with me and we can work together. The databasecan additionally serve as a tool for supervisors seeking coaching for a staffmember. Instead of sitting there and trying to read through a whole manual,just go to the database and find out if someone has skills in that area.”

Cheryl expects that the database will be available within a few months.She’s also looking forward to working with people in additional jobfamilies who may want to create their own peer mentoring groups.

In addition to helping individuals with their tasks, the initiative can help theoverall institution. Terry Murray of the NCAR Library, who serves on theadministrators steering group, points out that the mentoring “will bring a lotof the divisions closer because the administrators will be working together.We’ll have more interdivisional collaboration.”

To get involved with CoPs, contact Barb (ext. 2402, [email protected]);for PACT, contact Kristian (ext. 2146, [email protected]).

•David Hosansky

Also in this issue...

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When in Rome . . . Up-the-Hill Races feature the fast,the slow, and the toga-clad

Sunny vacations? No way! RAP scientist leadstourists toward tornadoes

Hiaper workshop on Hiaper instrumentation

HAO models will give space weather forecasts aboost

An interview with scientist liaison Sasha Madronich

Mohan Ramamurthy selected as Unidata director

Time to choose: HR announces annual enrollmentperiod




http://www.ucar.edu/communications/staffnotes/



Staff Notes Monthly

http://www.ucar.edu/communications/staffnotes/0210/hill.html[4/30/2013 11:48:18 AM]

Up-the-Hill races feature the fast, the slow, and thetoga-clad

To dust off a venerable phrase, the 23rd annual Up-the-Hill races featuredthe best of times and the worst of times. And not all contestants aimed forthe former.

The 13 September event saw some near-record-breaking performances,such as SCD’s Blake Caldwell’s breakaway sprint on his bike, as well asthe dramatic first-place finishes of two stalwart veterans: RAP’s DeirdreGarvey and ESIG’s Rick Katz.




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And yet the worst of times—last place, that is—also seemed to hold apeculiar fascination. How else to explain the biker who pedaled at the veryback of the pack—and yet could claim, with some mathematicalplausibility, that his time was every bit as good as Blake’s? And then therewas the relay race, in which two teams, disregarding traditionalcompetitive norms, staked claim to the seldom-coveted position of lastplace.

The theme of the event, sponsored by the Employee Activities Committee,was the “UCAR Olympics.” Accordingly, relay racers ran with sawed-offtoilet plungers held carefully upright to represent Olympic torches. Andmany participants wore togas—some of which, it must be said, were quitefashionable.

“They're high end, straight off of Fifth Avenue, the latest in rubber wear,”explained Athena Quinopolus (a.k.a. Loretta Quinn) of the trash bag togasshe and fellow JOSS colleagues sported.

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Others dressed in more conservative bedsheet togas, although, as SCD’sScot Colburn noted, "there's significant drag at high speeds."

The weather cooperated, if begrudgingly. Early-afternoon thunderstormsgave way to sprinkles and a few breaks of sunshine by 3 p.m., permitting atimely start to the 2,000-meter races up the hill to the Mesa Lab

.

The bikers went first. Blake led the pack with a winning time of 5:06,followed by ESIG’s Jeremy Hackney at 5:37 and HAO’s José Garcia at6:06.

This marked Blake’s third consecutive victory, although his time was afew seconds shy of the course record he set in 2000 of 4:59. The 18-year-old, one of the nation’s top young bike racers, has been competing acrossthe United States and overseas since the spring. “A lot of traveling and alot of racing has worn me out,” Blake said after the race. But, he added:“This race is always fun.”

On a per capita basis, veteran racer John Clyne of SCD more than held hisown. John, a star of the event in the early 1990s, finished with a time of

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8:45—even though he towed a trailer with his five-year-old daughter,Michaela. “That’s pretty good,” John pointed out when he heard his time.“Divide it in half.”

Pulling up the rear was first-time bike racer Ned Riedel of ACD, who wastowing two children—Ian, 6, and Sean, 3. “If my time was sub-15, I’mclaiming victory,” a grinning Ned declared by the finish line. His time, asit turned out, was just about 15 minutes.

RAP staffers dominated the women’s cycling. Deirdre Garvey finishedfirst with a time of 7:15, trailed by Beth Chorbajian (7:47) and KayLevesque (8:08). For Deirdre, the bike race was just a warmup: shepromptly headed back down the hill to compete in the foot race—andagain scored first among the women with a time of 11:42. Taking secondamong the women in this contest was ACD’s Julia Lee-Taylor, at 12:20,followed by F&A’s Betty Valent, at 12:38.

Deirdre had been a dominant figure in both the bike and foot races in theearly and mid 1990s, last leading the women in both events in 1996. Butthen she took several years off following an ankle injury. “This is fun,”she said after winning the foot race. “It’s really nice to be back.”

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Taking first place in the men’s foot race was another veteran: ESIG’s RickKatz. Rick had won the first two Up-the-Hill foot races in 1980 and 1981.But the 54-year-old scientist had last won in 1996, and he said he hardlyexpected to win this year “considering how old I am.” Rick’s principalcompetitor in recent years, RAP’s Andrew Crook, took the year offbecause of an injury —after winning the race five times in a row.

Trailing Rick were in a tight race for second place were José (9:12), freshfrom his third-place finish among the bicyclists, and MMM’s Carl Schmitt(9:16).

Then came the day’s last event: the relay race.

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Nonathletic staffers, take note: the Finance and Administration relay teamfor years has run at the back of the pack—and bragged about its slowness.Just last year, F&A star Bob Roesch declared: “No one steps on ourheels.”

This year, however, the race appeared to shape up slightly differently.While ACD, MMM, and HAO vied for first place, a plodding EO teamslipped behind F&A with an unassailably slow time of 10:37. Unable toclaim victory, EO attempted to claim defeat.

“We just outslowed them,” exulted EO’s Linda Carbone, who eased herway across the finish line behind everyone else. A true team player, Lindapointed out that the last-place finish was definitely a group effort, "Wehave a lot of slow people with a lot of enthusiasm."

Staff Notes Monthly


A despondent Katy Schmoll, F&A’s final runner, conceded the lack ofdefeat. “I’m bummed. Tradition has been broken.”

Ah, but nothing is simple at a scientific institution. The EmployeeActivities Committee determined the winner of the relay race with acomplex formula that weighted such factors as the level of participationand the number of runners wearing togas. And under that formula, EOactually moved up to the number-three spot, behind first-place HAO(which had the third-best time at 7:31), and second-place CGD (6:59).

Preferring first place over last, HAO team members basked in theirvictory. “HAO is proud that its overall mediocrity has finally beenrecognized," said Craig Hartsough

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With the jostling for last place behind them, everyone headed to the MLcafeteria for the post-race festivities, featuring first-rate refreshmentsserved up by Food Services. UCAR’s Medical Emergency Response Team(MERT) played a role at the event as well, administering first aid to abicyclist who fell and bruised her leg after the race. • David Hosansky andEllen Leslie

Check out video clips here:

bikerace.mov

footrace.mov

relay.mov

toga.mov


Learning from each other: Peer mentoring programsget off the ground



HAO models will give space weather forecasts a

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boost









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http://www.ucar.edu/communications/staffnotes/0210/chase.html[4/30/2013 11:51:56 AM]

Sunny vacations? No way!RAP scientist leads tourists toward tornadoes

While some vacationers might opt for a luxury cruise in the Caribbean andothers prefer a quiet camping trip in Yellowstone, increasing numbers wantto spend their vacations chasing the worst weather they can find—especiallyone of nature’s greatest spectacles, the tornado. To meet this demand, severaltour companies have formed in recent years to bring people closer to severestorms.

Enter Scott Landolt, associate scientist in NCAR’s Research ApplicationsProgram. A veteran storm chaser, he spent his vacation this year as anemployee of Silver Lining Tours, one of several companies offering tripsalong Tornado Alley.

Like many other staffers, Scott has gone storm chasing with friends. But heprefers working as a tour guide, escorting weather buffs from as far away asNew Zealand and Germany. “I enjoy the camaraderie and getting to meetpeople from different places,” he says. “Plus the equipment on the vansreally helps us to pinpoint the weather.”




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Scott led two tours of about a week eachin mid-May and late June. His role as ameteorological tour guide was twofold.He provided weather briefings, as wellas meteorological explanations ofstorms, for the participants at the start ofeach day, and—over the course of thetwo tours—he drove a vanapproximately 9,700 miles, crisscrossingseveral states in pursuit of storms. Howdemanding was Scott’s itinerary? InMay, he drove from Denver toOklahoma City to pick up the van andthe tour participants. The group thentraveled back to Colorado Springs, northto Douglas, Wyoming, southeast toYork, Nebraska, on to Salina, Kansas,and then back to Oklahoma City, before

heading for Wichita Falls, Midland, and Amarillo, Texas.

Scott and the other tour drivers used weather forecasts from two models,RUC (Rapid Update Cycle) and Eta, to decide where to hunt storms eachday. They also conferred frequently by radio to decide which weatherpatterns showed the most promise for severe storm activity.

Such six-to-ten day tours typically cost about $2,000 or a bit more per personfor transportation (in a 15-person van) and lodging. Dining out during suchtrips can be something of a hit-or-miss proposition. Scott cautions that ameal might consist of “a hotdog at 7-11. People have to be pretty flexible—we often eat wherever we can along the back roads.”

Despite the sometimes rushed pace, clients come from across the UnitedStates as well as overseas to seek out tornadoes, hailstorms, and otherinstances in which updrafts and downdrafts lead to weather mayhem. “Severeweather holds a strong attraction for many people. The unpredictability ofweather is definitely a draw,” Scott explains. “Storm chasing is an addiction.There’s always the appeal of the unknown—what are we going to see today?”

Scott’s second 2002 tour began with what turned out to be his best storm-chasing day of the summer. On 23 June, he and his five-person groupwitnessed eight tornadoes in northeastern South Dakota near the town ofLeola. Describing one tornado, Scott relates, “We were driving pretty fastand the tornado was following us. It was back lit by the Sun and picking upspeed as it traveled in a straight line down the dirt road we were on. I couldsee trees disappearing. As I looked in my rear- and side-view mirrors, Icould see a black boiling cloud behind me—it sounded like a rushingwaterfall.”

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That day was definitely the most memorable of the tour for Clair Bailey, aBritish accountant on her fourth tour (the first was an 18th birthday presentfrom her family). “This was the first year that I had been fortunate enough tosee tornadoes on a tour, even though I’d previously seen amazing supercellstructures and large hail and lightning,” Clair says. The first tornado thegroup saw formed into a violent wedge, and “we watched in awe as it crosseda road a mile ahead of us. I was totally stunned and amazed that I wasactually seeing what I had been watching on videos for years.”

Client reactions vary widely, according to Roger Hill, one of Scott’scolleagues. Roger is a veteran stormchaser who holds an unofficial recordfor witnessing 40 tornadoes in asingle season. “We tell clients thatthey could be in some dangeroussituations, but some don’t realize thatuntil it happens. We had a father anddaughter leave the tour after comingreally close to a rain-wrapped tornadoin North Dakota a couple of yearsago. They got to see the incredibledamage as it was happening, and wewere very close. It scared them somuch, they left.”

In contrast, Scott tells about anattorney who signed up for a tour with his teenage son. “This guy set up alittle office in the back of the van and, as we were traveling, he’d be sittingback there wheeling and dealing on his cell phone. We actually drovethrough a bad hailstorm and the guy just sat back there, working.”

The storm chasing experience, although certainly not for everybody, allowsthose who love weather and adventure to combine these two interests. Thefirst large-scale chasing for research took place in the 1970s at the NationalSevere Storms Laboratory and Texas Tech University. Scott and Roger agreethat the 1996 movie Twister, which dramatized storm chasing, had a lot to dowith popularizing the activity among nonmeteorologists. Storm-chasingtraffic has increased substantially in the past few years. Roger has witnessednearly 300 vehicles lined up on the back roads of Texas and Oklahomaduring peak days of storm season.

Are people who get close to severe storms putting themselves in unnecessarydanger? Clair doesn’t think so. “If I went chasing alone without someonewho knows what they’re doing, then yes, I would consider that a risk,” sheexplains. “When chasing with Scott Landolt and Roger Hill, though, I havecomplete confidence in their abilities.”

•Nancy Norris WadeNancy, employment administrator in Human Resources, is an occasional

contributor to SN Monthly.


Staff Notes Monthly



When in Rome . . .Up-the-Hill Races feature the fast, theslow, and the toga-clad


HAO models will give space weather forecasts a boost










Staff Notes Monthly

http://www.ucar.edu/communications/staffnotes/0210/hao.html[4/30/2013 11:52:23 AM]


What if scientists could provide advance warning of upper-atmosphericdisruptions that affect communications satellites or predict spectaculardisplays of the northern lights?

HAO's Stan Solomon took this photo of an aurora over Greeland.

That’s the goal of NSF’s $20 million multi-institutional initiative called theCenter for Integrated Space Weather Modeling (CISM). NCAR’s share,$3.3 million, will provide the High Altitude Observatory with the fundingto create a computer model of Earth’s upper atmosphere as well as uniqueinformation on solar dynamics. Thanks to this initiative, scientists expectforecasts of solar-generated events to become as commonplace as today’sthunderstorm predictions.

“In space weather we’re about where weather forecasters were forty yearsago,” says NCAR director Tim Killeen, a principal investigator for CISM.“But we have the advantage that the computing power and the modelingknow-how already exist. And now we’ve got the resources to makesignificant progress within just a few years.”

The NCAR contribution will be part of a more comprehensive researchmodel that will mimic space weather, from solar explosions to auroras

http://www.bu.edu/cism




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(southern and northern lights) to geomagnetic storms on Earth. The newtechnology will help scientists understand solar-terrestrial activity andeventually predict when and how it will affect activities on Earth. Much ofthe research will focus on the impact of the Sun on the ionosphere andthermosphere, which are the upper regions of Earth’s atmosphere.

A coronal mass ejection with an eruptingprominence (comprising cold, dense material)breaks out of the Sun's corona on 15 May, 2001.This composite image was captured by two HAOinstruments on Mauna Loa in Hawaii: CHIP(Chromospheric Helium I Imaging Photometer)and the Mark-IV K-Coronameter. (Image courtesyof Tony Darnell.)

“The big solar energy blasts move fast and can have a huge impact on theionosphere,” says HAO’s Stan Solomon. “With the planned CISM model,it’s within our technical reach to advance from the current system of alertsand warnings for these events to more precise numerical forecasts. Thesecan give us enough lead time—hours to days—to prepare for possibledisruptions to communications and navigation.”

Sarah Gibson, who conducts solar dynamics research at NCAR for CISM,is providing observations of the lower corona for the model. Theseobservations, unique to NCAR’s Mauna Loa Solar Observatory in Hawaii,are important because the lower corona is the origination point for coronalmass ejections (the eruptions of large amounts of matter from the Sun’souter atmosphere that can affect sensitive electronics systems on andorbiting Earth).

Sarah is also looking into the physical processes that underlie solardynamics. By better understanding the Sun on a theoretical level, she pointsout that we are in a stronger position for ultimately predicting when

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eruptions may occur. “If we can really understand the physics behind theseprocesses, we can make our models more accurate and be better able tointerpret observational signs of impending eruptions,” she says.

Roy Roble led the team that developed the NCAR model. Liying Qian andWenbin Wang are focusing on coupling the models, among other tasks.Alan Burns, another HAO researcher involved in CISM, says, “We’ve gotchunks of data concentrated in tiny areas in the midst of voluminous, data-empty space. But we’ve got to start somewhere. That’s what science is allabout.”

Roberta Johnson, an HAO scientist who also heads Education andOutreach, will be channeling some of this newfound knowledge toward thepublic through UCAR’s Windows to the Universe Web site. Nonscientistscan experience what it’s like to run the computer model and browse actualmodel results. A Boulder-based teacher will be invited to help EO developclassroom activities for exploring the upper atmosphere. Eventually, anNCAR workshop will train local teachers on presenting space weathermaterials in the classroom.

Pictured from left: Stan Solomon, Alan Burns,Sarah Gibson, Art Richmond, Gang Lu, WenbinWang, and Roberta Johnson.

The ionosphere and thermosphere are the final link in the space weatherchain stretching from the Sun to Earth. Important solar-terrestrial effectsoccur in these regions. Satellite orbits can drop in altitude because ofincreased drag during high solar activity and geomagnetic storms, andcommunications and navigation systems can be disrupted by changes in theionosphere in Earth’s polar and equatorial regions. And the most dramaticmanifestations of solar energy in Earth’s atmosphere are the brilliant blazesof color in polar skies, known as auroras.

•Anatta

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When in Rome . . .Up-the-Hill Races feature the fast,the slow, and the toga-clad






http://www.hao.ucar.edu/public/asr/asr98/tiso/tiso.html








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http://www.ucar.edu/communications/staffnotes/0210/sasha.html[4/30/2013 11:52:42 AM]


ACD senior scientist Sasha Madronich has begun a one-year term in thenewly created part-time position of scientist liaison in the NCARDirectorate. He is working with Tim Killeen and scientist colleagues on avariety of projects, including disseminating a new report on the status ofassociate and project scientists and holding meetings about the reviewprocess for scientists III and senior scientists. He also serves as a point ofcontact with the NCAR Scientist Assembly. SN Monthly recently interviewedSasha about his new role.

SN: Since scientist liaison is a new position in the NCAR director’s office,can you start by describing your main functions?

Sasha: The scientist liaison helps give Tim a perspective from the scientificstaff in his regular meetings. This is a one-third time position. It will rotatefrom year to year among scientists in the different divisions. My objectiveis really to give the scientists more of a voice in setting NCAR’s direction.

SN: You’ve been working on the response to the report by the Associateand Project Scientists Review Committee. Can you tell us about that?

Sasha: The impetus here is the feeling that the positions of project andassociate scientists have not been used uniformly across NCAR. Somedivisions have one understanding of what those job categories mean, whileother divisions have a different understanding. In fact, one of the strongest





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recommendations in the preliminary report, which came out at the end ofJuly, was a more consistent usage of these job categories. The committeemade a number of other recommendations and those are available on theWeb (see below).

Tim has appointed a subcommittee of the directors committee, includingmyself, to formulate a response to the report from the managementperspective by about the end of October. Certainly, more consistentapplication of these positions has met with broad support. But there are anumber of issues here that do not have clear answers and need additionaldiscussion.

SN: What about reviews of scientists III and senior scientists? At themoment, they are reviewed every five years. Is that likely to change?

Sasha: The short answer is I don’t know yet whether the process maychange. What I’ve been doing is talking to a lot of people who haveexperience with the annual evaluation process and the five-year reviews. Ialso hope to get input from the Scientist Assembly.

SN: Why change the current system?

Sasha: The way it works now is that, every five years, the division directorshave a retreat to discuss all the reviews of senior scientists and scientistsIII. This can be overwhelming because they’re looking at a lot of people ina short period of time.

Whether or not the evaluation process is changed, I should stress that thebasic idea of the reviews is to promote professional development. Ideally,we would like each scientist to have an opportunity to receive constructivefeedback from a very knowledgeable group, like peers and the divisiondirectors. It could be beneficial, to both the scientists and the institution, totake stock periodically of their scientific impact at national andinternational levels, as well as of their leadership role within NCAR.

SN: What else would you like to do during your year as scientist liaison?

Sasha: I would like to help engage the scientists more, across the divisions—in a less formal way—in science-related discussions. What I would liketo see, for instance, is for us to enjoy each other’s scientific company moreand, in some way, to revitalize the scientific communication process.

There is a tendency to become specialized, to work in smaller and smallergroups even when you are performing crossdivisional or multidisciplinarytasks. As a result, you do not know what other groups are doing. My goal isto have an interaction in which scientists exchange ideas with otherscientists and find out what they are doing. What mechanism wouldaccomplish this? I’m not sure. When I was at universities, we would havebrown bag lunches and somebody would be appointed to speak. And thediscussions that followed were really fascinating.

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http://www.ncar.ucar.edu/Director/Director.html







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http://www.ucar.edu/communications/staffnotes/0210/unidata.html[4/30/2013 11:52:57 AM]


After a national search, atmospheric scientist Mohan Ramamurthy has beenselected as the new director of the Unidata Program Center within UOP.Mohan, who will arrive in mid-January 2003, has had a long-timerelationship with Unidata, serving on its external Policy Committee andchairing its Users Committee. He has alsoserved on UCAR’s University RelationsCommittee since 2001.

Mohan received his Ph.D. in meteorologyfrom the University of Oklahoma and didpostdoc work at Florida State University.He will be leaving the University ofIllinois Urbana-Champaign, where he hasbeen a professor in the atmosphericsciences department since 1987.

Mohan’s interests include mesoscaleprocesses, ensemble forecasting,information technology, and interactivemultimedia instruction and learning.

“We are proud to have Mohan joining UCAR and look forward to manyyears of strong leadership at Unidata,” says UOP director Jack Fellows.

Outgoing Unidata director Dave Fulker now directs the central office of theNational Science Digital Library (see the October 2001 issue of SNMonthly).




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