On Wednesday of this week, the University begins to stir from Summer with the annual planning conference that, to my mind, marks the beginning of the semester. Classes don’t begin for another ten days or so, but you can already feel the Institution picking up its pace.

Superimposed upon a sense of impending activity are the concerns about the macro-changes that are central to the current higher education debate and the sense that political paralysis may indeed lead to this country going over a “fiscal cliff” in January.

I’m sure these will be among the major topics for discussion in Aspen, later this month….

Spent the last two days rebuilding my office Mac. Not so much fun. Thank you Dropbox and iCloud!

Just announced as the recipient of the 2012 Outstanding Mentor Award by the Biology Division of the National Council on Undergraduate Research (CUR).  This is terrific news for Mason and Krasnow. Congrats Dan!

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The student population is down and so is the traffic. We’re back from the Memorial Day weekend, but the pace on campus is a bit more relaxed. At the Krasnow Institute, the work on the card-swipe system for the front doors, continues….

This week I’ll be at the NSF in Arlington for a panel review. It’s hard work, but always very interesting.

I saw a terrific thesis defense yesterday by one of our neuroscience doctoral students. What a capstone to the PhD! Today I have the honor of attending the rehearsal of yet another of our impending graduates.

My ideas have been all over the place. What better idea than to blog a bleg to Advanced Studies’ readers. I’ll post a summary of suggestions that come in.

NSF Picks Lockheed for Huge Antarctic Support Contract