SUBJECT:

Understanding and Protecting the Planet (UPP) Town Hall Meeting and Poster Session

Understanding and Protecting the Planet (UPP)
Town Hall Meeting and Poster Session
February 16, 2016 5-8 PM
Scripps Seaside Forum

NEW THEME AREA PROPOSALS
The coordinating committee for UPP invites you to participate in a Town Hall Meeting on February 16 to explore new directions for the research theme. As you know, the Chancellor and Vice Chancellors issued a call for ideas for joint faculty hires two years ago and one of the focus areas that emerged from that call was Climate Change Impacts and Adaptation. We are in the process of interviewing for up to 8 new interdisciplinary joint FTE faculty in this focus area. And a recent $5M gift, most of which is in endowment, will allow this focus area to develop a center with ongoing support to initiate research.

We know that there are other exciting ideas for focus areas in the UPP research theme and want to provide an opportunity for faculty to propose new ideas for such focus areas. The Town Hall meeting will provide an opportunity for up to eight interdisciplinary groups to suggest other broad focus areas that fit within the UPP theme. We invite letters of interest for such presentations to be submitted to the coordinating committee by January 31. The groups selected for presentation (if there are more than 8) will be notified by February 7. Please submit your letter of interest identifying faculty and researchers who would participate in the focus area, the individual who will make the presentation, and a brief description of the opportunity. The letter of interest should be one page or less. It should be submitted to Vice Chancellor Leinen at mleinen@ucsd.edu.

We expect that proposed focus areas will be interdisciplinary and have high potential for substantial external funding. VC Brown has agreed to provide up to $5000 in seed money for each of the four proposed areas that emerge from the presentations at the Town Hall meeting. The seed funding would provide resources to hold meetings and/or workshops that develop the idea for the focus area, travel to visit potential funding agencies, engage other entities, or otherwise fully develop the idea to the point that it could be proposed to a major funding agency or foundation.

STUDENT POSTER SESSIONS
In addition to letters of interest for focus areas, we invite proposals from students to present posters on their UPP-related research. We are able to accommodate 25 poster presentations. Following the focus areas presentations we will have a reception with time to visit the posters. Students may propose posters by submitting a poster abstract by January 31. The abstract should include all authors of the poster and should indicate the individual that will be the primary presenter. The primary presenters will be notified by February 7 whether their poster has been selected. Abstracts should be submitted to Vice Chancellor Leinen at mleinen@ucsd.edu. All posters selected will receive a $25 bookstore gift card.

Margaret Leinen Vice Chancellor - Marine Sciences Director Scripps Institution of Oceanography