Message from the Chair – October 2013

Fall is here and our division is getting ready for the Winter Meeting in Washington DC.

First, I welcome you to the newly merged DES Division within the ANS. Before I begin, I want to express my thanks to both the past chair of Environmental Sciences Division, Steve Jennings, for the excellent work he did as the chair last year and his dedication to the Division. Along with our merger team, he lead the way to finalize the rules and bylaws and successfully bring two divisions together.

I would also like to take this opportunity to welcome the newly elected officers Eduardo Farfan – Vice Chair; Mark Campagna . Treasure and Jay Peters- Secretary/Treasurer; and Executive Committee members Leah Spradley Parks, Gene Carpenter, and Dustin Miller and of course a warm welcome back the current Executive and Standing Committee members!

As this is our first full year with the combined division we are busy! During the upcoming Winter Meeting in Washington DC of November 9th through November 15th, 2013, DES plans to have seven sessions in addition to hosting tours of the NSS Savannah. Thank you Doug Davis for all the prodding and planning that it takes to get the papers reviewed, sessions scheduled, and chairs coordinated.

We are also pleased to announce that DES will hold a joint topical meeting with Robotics in at the Annual meeting in Reno at in September 2014. Once again, Sue Agrawal is the Technical Program Chair and Jim Byrne is the Assistant Technical Program Chair. Your help is needed so stimulate papers, perform technical reviews, and chair sessions. Please pitch in and help Sue and Jim make this our best topical meeting yet.

Finally, we realize that our website for the combined division has fallen behind, however thanks to Dustin Miller, we hope to have it up and running by the time our next newsletter is distributed.

I look forward to working with you all and if you have any suggestions or ideas as to how we can improve our division please don.t hesitate to contact me at nglucskberg@haleyaldrich.com

Best Regards,

Nadia Glucksberg

Nadia Glucksberg
DES Chair, 2013 – 2014