1. Bill Beers announced that the departure of Steve Hajduk from the MBL is now official. He further indicated that at this time the future of the Global Infectious Disease Program in the Bay Paul Center is uncertain. Members of Science Council expressed regrets that Steve Hajduk is leaving the MBL, and wished him well.
2. New Director for Ecosystems Search
   The Director of the MBL has sent a letter to Dr. Hugh Ducklow offering him the position as Director of the Ecosystems Center. An affirmative response is anticipated.
3. Brown-MBL Graduate Program
   Four students have been accepted into this Program for Fall 2006. One of the students already in this program has transferred out to Bioengineering at Brown. There are currently 15 students enrolled in the joint Brown-MBL Graduate Program.
4. Summer Investigators
   The number of summer PI’s in 2006 is eleven lower than in 2005

Lenny Dawidowicz was asked to comment on current funding for the courses. He indicated that three competing NIH renewals for the SPINES Program, the Molecular Mycology course, and the Zebrafish course submitted Nov-Dec 2005 had all been funded.

In addition the Gordon & Betty Moore Foundation has renewed support for the 2006 Microbial Diversity Course.

Competing renewals of major NIH Training Grants for support of “Frontiers in Reproduction” and the Embryology Course, submitted on July 1, 2006 are pending.

3. Clarification of “Retired” and “Scholar” Position Titles at MBL (Paul De Weer)
The memo from Jerry Melillo to Bill Beers dated 03/08/06 served as the basis for discussion. It was noted that Dr. Melillo’s proposal would take effect only after a person retires. The MBL does not currently use, or contemplate using, the label “Emeritus” which is not universally applied at universities and which, according to some, carries a negative connotation on grant applications.

Science Council voted unanimously to accept Dr. Melillo’s proposal in principle with the following initial amendments.

Title:
Change to:
“Senior Scholar” or “Senior Research Scholar” depending on prior appointment, to make the policy applicable to both tracks.

Purpose of the position:
Change to:
To enable MBL scientists to have a position at the lab that gives them a defined set of privileges that will allow them to remain active as scholars in the MBL community once they formally retire.

Requirements for appointment:

• Add first bullet
  • Formal retirement.
• Modify second bullet to
  • At least a decade of full-time employment or equivalent at the MBL as Senior Scientist or Senior Research Scientist.
• Modify last bullet to
  • Appointment/Approval by the Director.

Terms and privileges:

• Modify first bullet to
  • 3-year appointment, renewable on review of Science Council and appointment by the Director.
• Modify last bullet to
  • Eligibility to write grants and earn up to 49.9% of the position’s annualized salary.

Science Council requested that the Director of Human Resources look into details of this proposal specifically with respect to the issue of retirement benefits. A revised draft document will then be circulated to members of Science Council for comments. The resulting proposal will then be sent to Center and Program Directors.

4. Addendum to Nominations and Elections (Paul De Weer)
Paul De Weer presented the following items (for the record), which had transpired since the April 29, 2006 meeting of Science Council to date.

1. Steve Hajduk will step down from Science Council in August 2006
2. Tim Mitchison will run for Science Council in August 2006 as a representative from the Education constituency.

5. Update on replacements for the General Scientific Meetings (Anne Giblin)
Anne Giblin reported that there will be a Scientific Symposium on August 10, 2006 run by Ivan Valiela. This symposium will consist largely of presentations by undergraduates in various REU programs at the MBL. Efforts to organize a “Course Highlights” and a “Day of Science” are underway.

6. Committee to Review MBL Education Committee (Don Faber)
Don Faber restated the following points from recent discussions on the Education Committee by the Science Council.

• Policies governing membership and procedures of the Education Committee are in place.
• The purview of the Education Committee is to:
  1. Review only summer and special topics courses.
  2. Review proposals for new courses.
  3. Recommend selection of new course Directors. Science Council suggests this may be best achieved with the use of ad hoc committees.

The MBL Education Committee is not charged with the review of other educational programs at the MBL. Examples include the Brown-MBL Graduate Program and non-MBL programs such as the Science Writers’ Course and Visiting Educational Programs (e.g. Ursinus College, Drew University, Union College, Hunter College, and Williams College). The Science Council will constitute ad hoc committees for review of programs that fall outside the purview of the Education Committee.

Don Faber has assembled a list of names of potential new members for the MBL Education Committee that will be presented to the Director for possible appointment to the committee.

7. Personnel Matters: Appointments & Promotions (Paul De Weer)

[…]

8. Strategic Planning of Research at MBL
Gary Borisy made a presentation on the content and procedure of strategic planning of research at the MBL.

Regarding the content Dr. Borisy described potential areas of scientific overlap between centers using, as an example, collaboration on marine microbial ecology between the Ecosystems and Bay Paul Centers, exploring the use of metagenomics and novel imaging techniques to study microbial diversity.

Dr. Borisy also addressed strengthening common interests between the courses and the research programs.

In terms of procedure Dr. Borisy indicated that he would take advantage of the intellectual firepower present at the MBL during the summer. He plans to meet with faculties of several courses as well as with summer investigators. He also encourages groups to begin discussions on their own and bring their thoughts/ideas to him and/or the Science Council for further consideration.

9. Matters Arising (Paul De Weer)
Following discussion at the last Science Council (April 29, 2006) regarding the procedures used for the search of the Ecosystems Director, which was conducted without formal representation from the Ecosystems Center on the search committee, Paul De Weer made a proposal to have written policies set down for future searches.

This will be addressed by Science Council.

10. Old Business
No old business was brought up.

11. New Business
Paul De Weer presented a letter (dated July 14, 2006) from Ann Stuart where she expressed concern regarding the accessibility of MBL Buildings to MBL Corporation Members.

It was decided that this letter be forwarded for further action to the appropriate MBL Department, which will then report back to Science Council.

The meeting adjourned at 1:20 pm.

Science Council then went into Executive Session.