cc: "'Philip D. Jones'" , Tom Wigley , Lisa Butler date: Mon, 16 Jun 2008 10:41:16 -0700 from: Ben Santer subject: Re: Symposium for Tom to: Kevin Trenberth Dear Kevin, Thanks very much for your email. It's nice that Bill is willing to commit some level of financial support for Tom's retirement Symposium. Anjuli has informed me that it will be possible to use up to $10,000 of my DOE Fellowship for the purpose of funding the Symposium. I'm assuming there may be DOE restrictions on using that money for purchasing wine and beer. I'll check into this. I guess that the $10,000 could fully fund a Symposium dinner at the St. Julien (or a restaurant of Tom's choice). There would probably be some money left over for helping folks who could not fully fund their own travel/accommodation. I spoke to Tom on Friday about "firming up" the date for the Symposium. One issue there was whether the scheduling of the Symposium should be coordinated with the 2009 CCSM meeting. Have the dates of the 2009 CCSM meeting been set? With best regards, Ben (P.S.: I'm just about to leave on a "road trip" with my son Nick. I'll be back in my office on June 23rd.) Kevin Trenberth wrote: > Ben > > I have finally received a reply from Bill Large on this topic. He > provides some support for the symposium: certainly good support for > having it but luke warm as to how many resources from CGD might be > available. > We have a visitor fund and I believe we can apply to maybe get a couple > of people to come to NCAR using those funds. But a key point is that > most travel would have to be self funded unless your DOE grant can help. > > We can apply for the funds to have a reception and I believe we will be > successful on that: the main issue is liquor (wine and beer) for which > limited or no funds are available, unless the NCAR Director or maybe > ESSL can provide some. The new NCAR Director (Eric Barron) is not yet > in place so this will need to be explored later. June 2009 is a new > financial year and hopefully things will look a bit brighter. > > I am more optimistic than might be inferred from Bill's comments (he > might not be CD Director then either), and I would encourage you/us to > go ahead with the planning but with great caution on the funding: get > invitations out and ask people to fund their own travel or make specific > requests that we might consider (but no promises). > > In Warren's symposium, there was a dinner at a hotel nearby (St Julien) > which Warren paid for himself! We can make it a no host affair whereby > everyone pays for themselves if something like that is considered > desirable: either the night before or the night of the symposium. > > Let's tie down the date and move ahead from here. > Kevin > > > > Tom included this in his retirement memo: > > Finally, my colleagues Ben Santer and Phil Jones are hoping to run a > symposium in my honor in June 2009. The ideal location for this is NCAR. > I expect that Ben will contact you soon to see whether and, if so, what > facilities NCAR can provide in support of this planned event. > > > > Ben Santer wrote: >> Dear Kevin, >> >> I spoke to Tom yesterday regarding the idea of a one-day scientific >> symposium in his honor, to be held at NCAR. I think Tom is now >> receptive to this idea. I believe that such a symposium would be a >> very appropriate way of celebrating Tom's seminal scientific >> contributions - not only to our own field, but also to aqueous >> geochemistry and karst hydrology. >> >> Tom taught me how to be a scientist. He had - and continues to have - >> an enormous influence on my own scientific career and on the careers >> of a many others. It would be fitting and appropriate to try to bring >> together Tom's colleagues at NCAR and the larger "family" of >> scientists with whom Tom has collaborated over the years (people like >> Phil Jones, Keith Briffa, Sarah Raper, Tim Osborn, and Tim Atkinson at >> CRU; myself, Karl Taylor, and Peter Gleckler at PCMDI, Jae Edmonds, >> Rich Richels, Steve Smith, Mike MacCracken, Bob Charlson, etc.) >> >> Tom and I discussed possible dates for such a symposium. His >> preference would be to have it about a year from now at NCAR. >> >> I would be very happy to take the lead in planning this event. I have >> not yet approached Anjuli regarding the possibility of using some of >> my DOE funding (from my DOE Distinguished Scientist Fellowship) to >> provide some level of financial support for the planned symposium. I >> am copying Anjuli on this email, and hope I'll be able to clarify this >> issue soon. >> >> At the moment, I just wanted to check whether you (and NCAR) are >> agreeable to the idea of holding this symposium at NCAR. >> >> With best regards, >> >> Ben >> ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- >> >> Benjamin D. Santer >> Program for Climate Model Diagnosis and Intercomparison >> Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory >> P.O. Box 808, Mail Stop L-103 >> Livermore, CA 94550, U.S.A. >> Tel: (925) 422-2486 >> FAX: (925) 422-7675 >> email: santer1@llnl.gov >> ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- > > > -- > **************** > Kevin E. Trenberth e-mail: trenbert@ucar.edu > Climate Analysis Section, NCAR > P. O. Box 3000, (303) 497 1318 > Boulder, CO 80307 (303) 497 1333 (fax) > > Street address: 1850 Table Mesa Drive, Boulder, CO 80305 > http://www.cgd.ucar.edu/cas/trenbert.html > -- ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Benjamin D. Santer Program for Climate Model Diagnosis and Intercomparison Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory P.O. Box 808, Mail Stop L-103 Livermore, CA 94550, U.S.A. Tel: (925) 422-2486 FAX: (925) 422-7675 email: santer1@llnl.gov ----------------------------------------------------------------------------