Message from the NUFO Steering Committee
The NUFO Steering Committee has been working hard on plans for our Annual Users' Meeting Industrial Workshop, User Facility Exhibition, user statistics, and a NUFO brochure. The following information summarizes what we’ve done since our last newsletter.
Information about the 2009 NUFO Annual Meeting and Industrial Workshop can be found at http://www.aps.anl.gov/Users/NUFO/2009_Meeting/index.htm. Three primary areas are being highlighted at this meeting are: users, industrial access to national user facilities, and best practices. Among the speakers are Harriet Kung (Director of Office of Basic Energy Sciences, DOE), John Palafoutas (Task Force for the Future of American Innovation), Mike Lubell from the American Physical Society, and industrial scientists from GE, Eli Lilly, DuPont, Creaty MicroTech, Schering-Plough, Sematech, and Aegis. The meeting will also include a poster session highlighting user facilities represented by NUFO. NUFO intends to display these posters at the User Facility Exhibition in the fall.
The date and place for the User Facility Exhibition in DC has been finalized and plans are currently being finalized. The theme for this Exhibition is "The Future of America is the Research of Today." Stay tuned for more details.
NUFO Charter: A modification to the Charter was ratified in May by the membership. The modifications were made to the mission statement. Additional changes have been suggested to the membership section which will be presented at the Annual Meeting.
National User Statistics: The national user statistics have now been collated. The final numbers, showing total numbers and geographic distribution (by state) will be posted soon on the NUFO web page. We are happy to report that NUFO represents more than 25,000 users and includes approximately 7,000 students, 560 universities, and more than 350 companies.
NUFO Brochure: The NUFO brochure has been finalized and will be available at the Annual Meeting. It will be posted on the NUFO web site after the Annual Meeting.
Task Force on the Future of American Innovation: NUFO is a member of the Task Force on American Innovation, a coalition of businesses, trade associations, scientific societies, and higher education, was founded in 2004 to advocate greater federal investments for basic research in the physical sciences and engineering. They recently completed a brochure highlighting Basis Research (Tackling America’s 21st Century Challenges) on which the NUFO logo is proudly displayed. Copies of this brochure will also be available at the Annual Meeting.
The Task Force presented the "Legislator of the Year Award" to Speaker Pelosi on June 2, 2009. The event was covered by CNBC and can be found at the following link: http://www.cnbc.com/id/31073780.