UTIG researchers enjoy continued success in securing significant National Science Foundation (NSF) funds for marine geophysical science. Most recently, NSF’s Office of Polar Programs awarded our aerogeophysical group, led by Don Blankenship, a $1.5 million grant to collect data over the Amundsen Sea Embayment. This area is of concern to scientists because it is losing ice more rapidly than other parts of the unstable West Antarctic ice sheet. UTIG will team up with the British Antarctic Survey to collect more than 65,000 line kilometers of data over two field seasons.

We have also received funding for several large marine geophysical seismic programs. These successes are a tribute to the caliber of our researchers and students at a time when most Federal programs supporting this type of field-oriented research have not increased significantly. Concerns about the potential impact of marine seismic data acquisition on the well-being of marine mammals, however, led to the postponement of all of our marine geophysical programs originally scheduled during the 2003 and 2004 calendar years—a development that poses a challenge to the entire marine community. UTIG is working closely with the NSF and the Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory (LDEO) at Columbia University—the operator of the ship we most often use for our marine geophysical work, the research vessel (R/V) Maurice Ewing—to address these issues. Two of the affected cruises—the Hess Deep and the Southeast Caribbean BOLIVAR (Broadband Onshoreoffshore Lithosphere Investigation of Venezuela and the Antilles Arc Region)—did finally sail, and three others have been rescheduled for either later this year or early 2005.

UTIG continues to receive funding for our industry-supported programs, including both the PLATES Project, a program of research into plate tectonic and geologic reconstructions managed by Lisa Gahagan with principal investigators Lawrence Lawver and Ian Dalziel, and the Gulf Basin Depositional Synthesis Project (GBDS), managed by Patricia Ganey-Curry with principal investigator Bill Galloway. Soon to begin its 10th year and fifth phase, the GBDS project continues to maintain an average sponsorship level of 15 companies. Both programs continually offer research experience for both graduate and undergraduate students.

We continue to strengthen our leadership within the global geoscience community. Most notable is the role Jamie Austin and I played in guiding the science and managing the Integrated Ocean Drilling Program (IODP) during its inaugural year. The IODP, an international partnership of scientists and research institutions organized to explore the evolution and structure of the Earth, began on October 1, 2003. The NSF and the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sport, Science and Technology (MEXT) of Japan are the Lead Agencies for the IODP. Austin served as the interim director of the program, and I was the president of IODP Management International Inc., a not-for-profit corporation NSF qualified to fill the role of the central management office for the IODP. UTIG researchers Craig Fulthorpe, Sean Gulick, Nathan Bangs, Harm van Avendonk, Kirk McIntosh, Gail Christeson, and Kathy Ellins play important roles in the IODP science advisory structure, in related data acquisition and processing efforts, and in IODP education and outreach. Cliff Frohlich continues to serve as the Jackson School representative to the Incorporated Research Institutions in Seismology (IRIS). Austin currently serves on the American Geophysical Union’s Fundraising and Development Committee. UTIG continues to fulfill a role in advising, mentoring, and supervising the research of graduate students, as well as a number of undergraduate students. To date, 200 students who engaged in research at UTIG have received advanced degrees, mostly from the Department of Geological Sciences. Senior Research Scientist Mrinal Sen was recently awarded a joint appointment as Professor of Geophysics in the Department of Geological Sciences. While UTIG’s focus on education is at the university level and higher, we have a history of formal and informal educational outreach to the public, teachers, and K–12 students. Since 1995 we have included teachers, writers, and artists in our field programs to communicate the value of our science to the public and to enhance collaboration between science researchers and educators. UTIG has completed its second year of the NSF-sponsored GK–12 fellowship program to enhance collaboration and communication between science researchers and educators by partnering graduate students with K–12 teachers. UTIG’s GK–12 fellowship program has supported nine graduate students from the Department of Geological Sciences and two from the Department of Anthropology. Also in 2004, we developed a new look for our Web site and increased the functionality of its library of Web pages.

Sincerely,

Paul Stoffa