Message from the NUFO Steering Committee
The NUFO Steering Committee has been working hard on plans for our Annual Users' Meeting, Industrial Workshop, and User Facility Exhibition; efforts to support the Stimulus Bill; data collection; and web page enhancements. The following information summarizes what we’ve done since our last newsletter.
Planning for the 2009 NUFO Annual Meeting and Industrial Workshop at Argonne National Laboratory is well underway. A formal announcement will be made in March, but mark your calendars for June 10-12, and make your travel plans. The Organizing Committee has a preliminary agenda and is now soliciting input from the community on discussion topics for the Friday, June 12 session. The Industrial Usage Workshop will be held on June 11 and will focus on various aspects of industrial use of national user facilities, including analyses of what works and what doesn’t. Pat Dehmer, Deputy Director for Science Programs at the Office of Science, has accepted NUFO's invitation to give the keynote speech. If you have any questions, please contact Susan Strasser at susan.strasser@nufo.org.
Planning for the User Facility Exhibition in DC is also well underway. The theme for this Exhibition is "The Future of America is the Research of Today." Preliminary plans are to have four displays highlighting the following areas: user statistics, types of facilities and their scientific roles, significant scientific and industrial accomplishments, and the role of education at national user facilities. NUFO also plans to hold a luncheon or reception with keynote talk(s) about significant scientific accomplishments made at national user facilities. NUFO will be contacting user administrators and user representatives for input for these displays.
National User Statistics: After months of data collection, this project is nearly complete. The latest count shows that there are currently more than 27,000 active users of our facilities. The final numbers, showing total numbers and geographic distribution (by state) will be posted soon on the NUFO web page.
NUFO Outreach Contacts: The NUFO outreach project continues; currently more than 300 scientists have volunteered to serve as outreach contacts. Their contact information resides in a password protected site on the NUFO page. NUFO used this list in its efforts to support the science numbers in the stimulus package. We thank all who participated in these efforts.
One-page flyers: One-page facility flyers have been collected for a majority of the user facilities and are available at: http://www.nufo.org/factsheets.aspx. If your facility has not submitted a one-page flyer, please feel free to submit one to info@nufo.org.
NUFO Correspondence: During the month of January NUFO signed letters as a member of the Task Force on the Future of American Innovation in support of funding science in the Stimulus Bill, sent a letter to Steve Chu congratulating him on his appointment as the Secretary of Energy, and sent letters to Nancy Pelosi and various members of the House and Senate for their support in funding the Office of Science in the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009. These letters can be found at: http://www.nufo.org/outreach/activities.aspx.
Questions: Please send all inquires to info@nufo.org.