Message from the Director:

Let me begin with sincere congratulations to C-DEBIers Jennifer Biddle (University of Delaware) awarded the UD College of Earth, Ocean, and Environment’s Outstanding Faculty Mentor Award and Elizabeth Trembath-Reichert (Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution) awarded a 2018 L’Oreal For Women in Science Fellowship.

On a policy front, the NSF has recently announced new measures to protect the research community from harassment. Like NSF, C-DEBI is committed to promoting safe, productive research and education environments for current and future scientists and engineers and will not tolerate harassment, including sexual or sexual assault within our community. C-DEBI’s Ethics Policy also maintains avenues for potential ethical misconduct resolution for members of the C-DEBI community.

Finally, all good things must come to an end. C-DEBI is an NSF Science and Technology Center, and we have entered year 9 (of 10). In the final 18 months, NSF funding for all STCs scales back substantially, and a number of changes at C-DEBI must consequently occur in the phase down. 2018 represented the last round of the Research Grants and Fellowships programs; we now move towards synthesis activities (and continue to support community workshops). We must also eliminate a number of our Education, Outreach, and Diversity programs, but we are developing plans for sustaining some of these with outside support. 2018 also marks the end of CC-RISE at UCSC, Community College Instructor Workshops, Teacher Small Grants, and the USC SeaGrant Summer Marine Science Camp; 2019 will see the final installments of CC-RISE at WHOI, the GEM course, and GGURE. The community college C4 REU has been hugely successful, and we have submitted a renewal proposal to the NSF for 2020. As we approach the end of NSF-funding, we continue to strategize on how to maintain C-DEBI and our community in its next phase. Suggestions and creative ideas are more than welcome!

Cheers,

Jan Amend
C-DEBI Director