date: Mon, 21 Aug 2000 06:57:09 -0600 from: Tom Wigley subject: Tyndall to: m.hulme@uea.ac.uk, tmwigley@bouldernews.infi.net, t.d.davies@uea.ac.uk CONFIDENTIAL Mike, I was a little disturbed by the lack of credible candidates for the Scientific Director job. Astrid and I have discussed the situation at length and decided that I should make myself available. As you can realise, there are some difficult factors involved. Moving back to England would not be easy for Eirik or Melissa, both in terms of schooling and (particularly) because of established friendships here. My pension scheme is also an issue that I would have to investigate carefully. A third item is housing -- price increases here have not kept up with Norwich, so this could create a financial burden. The most difficult aspect, however, is Astrid's career. For us to return to England, she would have to be offered an appropriate job by UEA, preferably in the Scandinavian department. As you know, Astrid's career has really 'taken off' since coming here. She has produced many important papers, obtained a number of big grants from NSF (the most recent one was for some $400K), and been Assistant Director of INSTAAR for two years (INSTAAR, by the way, is vastly bigger than CRU, so this Assistant Director post was a major item). She is currently being courted by the C.U. Scandinavian Dept. here; but with the problem that her academic credentials are almost too good (superior to almost everyone in that Department). We could not return to England unless she was given a position in UEA that matched her present position and status level. So, if you are willing to entertain me as a candidate, could you discuss this with Trevor ... and up the line within UEA. On the positive side, I am not making myself available purely because it appears that your candidate list is less good than one might have hoped. Getting the Centre was a major coup for UEA, and it is clear that its future success will depend to no small degree on who is the Scientific Director. It would be pointless to show false modesty here, but I believe that my qualifications, academic stature and credibility, and breadth of knowledge, interests and experience put me far above any other actual or potential candidate. Furthermore, the broad policy-relevant goals of the Centre lie squarely within my own current interests, which have evolved considerably in this direction over the years that I have been here in Boulder. Cheers, Tom.