Just some “catnip” to get our folks excited. On the right hand side of the rendering is our current great room. Phase III will include our Center for Social Complexity and two new centers along with collaboration space, faculty offices and an auditorium.
Phase II, the new laboratory wing, is off the rendering to the right.
One minor leak, otherwise no problems. As many of you know, there was more rain than wind.
I’m off to Sandia National Labs today to learn about their efforts in cognitive sciences.
We are now actively preparing the Institute for Hurricane Irene. For our staff and students:
That’s the office of our CFO, Jane Wendelin. It all happened about 90 minutes ago and reminded me of my native California. Turns out it was a 5.9 earthquake, about 80 miles south of us. All of our equipment and labs are fine. Same with all of our staff.
Thanks to colleagues and friends from around the world who’ve emailed and texted.
As we get ready this week for the return of our students and the beginning of another academic year, it’s useful to take a bit of time for some perspective on what lies ahead here at the Krasnow Institute for Advanced Study…..
In terms of research, the Institute’s full complement of wet labs are now on-line and, together with our faculty, constitute a critical mass to move the experimental aspects of our neuroscience inquiries forward. We are well-funded, we have imaginative scientists and students, and we can ask the next level of questions. This is propitious for high-risk, high-payoff experimental science.
At the same time, we are engaging with students at all levels of higher-education, through our programs. The quality and quantity of our students continues to increase. This is both a function of commitment and support for graduate education from the central administration here at Mason, but also of some recent private gifts, which ensure our ability to attract and train the very brightest.
We are also committed to enhancing undergraduate education here at Mason as part of the University’s Quality Enhancement Program, Students as Scholars. Embedding undergraduate student scholarship within an institute for advanced study represents an “out-of-the-box” approach to improving learning outcomes, particularly in STEM fields.
We are also getting traction on our Krasnow Phase III project (stay tuned for images) which will expand our computational social sciences programs beyond what they are now, and, at the same time, bring them under the central roof of the Krasnow Institute facility. My hope is to raise approximately $14M in new gifts over the next year or so, to bring Phase III into being.
We are also moving ahead full-speed into two new arenas for the Institute: executive education and international initiatives. In some cases, we’ll combine the two. The goal is to broaden the Institute for Advanced Study’s research and education portfolio. We’ll work closely with other academic units here at Mason and our long-term external partners in these efforts.
It’s an exciting time to be serving as institute director and chief academic unit officer. I’m looking forward to a great year.
Is interviewed by Slate’s William Saletan, here. Crow has a vision for the modern public research university that is quite interesting. I’m particularly intrigued by his notion of trans-disciplinary institutes–it would be enjoyable to have him visit Krasnow.
If you are an administrator at George Mason. I’m back in DC, ready to focus on the new academic year. This is a particularly important one for Mason–we’re choosing a new President.
For the Institute, this year will as much about new international collaborations, as it is about our new faculty members and research space. But we’ll also be carefully watching the US science funding agencies as they deal with their own challenges.
ScienceInsider has an analysis here. Their view is not as pessimistic as you might think.
Here is the quad at the MBL yesterday afternoon. I had the good fortune to, on arrival, immediately run into many close colleagues and even one of our own Mason doctoral students along with her mother!
When I’m in Woods Hole I never miss getting up very early before the tourists get here for the Martha’s Vineyard ferry, to enjoy the spectacular views and to get some quiet work in before the rest of the day gears up.
The campus seems in great shape under President Gary Borisy. The annual Corporation meeting is Friday and I’m sure I’ll learn more.
I’m spending time now thinking about the subject for our 2013 virtual symposium issue for The Biological Bulletin. What can possibly top regeneration (2011) and symbiosis (2012)? I suppose this counts as a bleg….
Discoverers and Discoveries 