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Science Council of the Marine Biological Laboratory
Minutes, July 21, 2007
Present: Catherine Carr, Paul De Weer, Don Faber, Barbara Furie, Chris Neill, Rudolf Oldenbourg, Larry Rome, Peter Smith
Ex Officio: William Beers, Gary Borisy, John Dowling
Also present: Eliezar Dawidowicz, Cathy Norton
The meeting was called to order at 9:02 AM
1. Minutes: Minutes of the April 21, 2007 meeting were approved.
2. Directors Report:
Campaign Feasibility Studies:
The MBL consultant, called CCS (Community Counseling Services), has produced a final report on the feasibility of a capital campaign. This report will be presented to the Board of Trustees at the August meeting. The report includes a presentation of findings of support levels, how the funds might be used, and what a suitable target might be. Access points were also identified, such as protecting the planet, climate change, biodiversity tools, regenerative biology, and human health.
3. Report of the CASO:
There are five new Brown/MBL students which brings the total to 20. Jerry Melillo has taken over the responsibilities of this program on an interim basis. He has been working with Brown to create a single source of information for student status, which has been challenging in the past.
Gary Borisy reported that an anonymous foundation gift of $1.2 million was given to endow graduate student fellowships at MBL in any program.
Bill Beers reported that the Rowe Laboratory renovation was completed ahead of time. There have been small grumbles about some differences in the new building, but for the most part the investigators are very happy. We did suffer a bit of a decline in the space applications this year, due probably in part to the uncertainty of the renovation schedule. We expect those numbers to increase for next year.
The Academic Affairs Committee was dissatisfied with the Bay Paul Center review; mostly with the lack of availability of information in a timely manner. There was much discussion about how to do that better, and a template for future reviews is being worked on.
There was also discussion about what use the Academic Affairs Committee makes of these reviews. The conclusion was that the reviews cannot be solely forward looking; but more about what has happened in the past and what the successes of the program have been.
The question was raised about the involvement of the Academic Affairs committee with the process and reviews of all new appointments. The trigger for that discussion was the fact that there were only 38 applicants for three Bay Paul Center positions, and that was viewed as not a strong showing. The Academic Affairs Committee will discuss this further; to define their role, and hope to improve the process.
4. Cathy Norton: Presentation on MBL/WHOI Library, an update
There is an application pending, submitted through the library, for a scientific appointment. Cathy Norton presented some general library statistics to the committee. She spoke about peer reviewed journal articles and their continuation as vehicle for scientists to report their findings. The power of journal articles is very strong; one calculation shows that a publication from a drug company in the New England Journal of Medicine or JAMA is worth $1-5 billion to the company. The number of published articles has decreased, in part due to the globalization of collaboration. The library is using a new open source program called Ruby on Rails to gather and sort publications and collaborations.
Although the trend is for the use of electronic material sources rather than physical visits to libraries, the MBL/WHOI library continues to be used heavily. The offices and library desks are filled to capacity this year for the first time since the 1980s.
Neil Sarkar holds a Ph.D. in Molecular Biology with a focus on terminology and systematics. Scientific staff needs to be an integral part of the library for the transitions in informatics that are to come in the near future, including the Encyclopedia of Life project.
Gary Borisy noted that there has been some effort to recruit individuals in the area of Biomedical Informatics.
There was a discussion of the library proposing a program. The library does have an endowment, one of the hallmarks of a Program or Center at the MBL.
5. Lenny Dawidowicz-Education
Lenny reported that the courses have never been stronger. The quality of the students is fantastic. Ron Vale and Tim Mitchison have assembled a very impressive imaging facility on the third floor of Loeb in just under 2 weeks. The Embryology course has been renewed for funding by the NIH for the next five years, as well as the Neuroinformatics course. None of the budgets in any of the grants have been cut. The Howard Hughes Medical Institute renewed support for the education program at the MBL for the next four years, essentially doubling the amount of its award. The comments from HHMI included a statement that they were very impressed with the breadth and the sustained excellence of the program.
Catherine Carr reported on the searches for new directors by the Education Committee. Hollis Cline from Cold Spring Harbor has been identified as the new director for the Neurobiology Course. Michael Berry from Princeton and Adrienne Fairhall from the University of Washington have been identified for the Computational Neuroscience course. These appointments were approved by the committee.
Don Faber brought up the importance of the Education Committee, and the need for the committee to be involved in decisions of this type.
Gary Borisy brought up the distinction between summer courses and special courses. The issue is administrative; the application form and tuition would need to be changed. The original distinction was that the MBL subsidized summer courses, and not special courses. All courses are now subsidized, and this is a discussion point for the Education Committee.
7. Corporation Membership-John Dowling
John Dowling noted that Seth Bordenstein was awarded one of the HHMI outreach program grants. Out of 187 applicants, 25 were funded. This is a tremendous accomplishment.
Report of committee to define criteria, fee, benefits
John said that, after the last corporation meeting, a committee was set up to find ways to make the Corporation more effective. The committee found that, when looking at corporations of other institutions, ours is larger and includes more scientists. The corporation should provide governance and advice to the MBL. Another important role for the corporation members is to participate in the corporation committees. At least five committees should continue: Building, Services and Grounds; Education; Fellowships; Housing, Food Services and Child Care; and Research Services and Space. Over the next few months these committees should be reconstituted and term limits set: 3 years for members, and 5 years for the chair with the possibility of renewal. The charges should also be reformulated. Two committee names could be changed: the Education Committee should be changed to the Committee on Courses, and the Fellowships Committee should be changed to the Research Awards Committee. The suggested committee name change for the Education Committee was discussed and approved. The name change for the Fellowship Committee is a more complex issue and will be discussed further.
The perks of Corporation Membership were discussed: access to the library and other research and education facilities, voting privileges, receipt of all MBL publications, and the ability to serve on Science Council and the other standing committees. A new initiative is the Corporation website that is limited to Corporation Members. The website will contain surveys and will serve as a means of communication for the committee. The decision was made to reduce the dues to $100 with the thought that more may be given to the annual fund. The requirements of Corporation Membership have been revised to include people who worked for the MBL in a non-scientific capacity, and trustees. The hope is to get more applications from younger MBL members. A special letter was sent to course directors last week.
The issue of student membership was discussed; they would be non-voting, would not have building access, and should pay break-even costs for publications, but would be able to serve on committees. We need to find out the cost for the student membership. Are they already receiving mailed materials? It was agreed that the committee needs to discuss this a bit further, and maybe the alumni association would be a better fit. It was agreed that vendors should be invited to apply for corporation membership.
Applications for Corporation Membership:
Robert Hunter, Clinical Director, Psychiatric Research Inst. For Neuroscience, University of Glasgow, Scotland--Approved
Michael Cummings, Associate Professor, University of Maryland, Center for Bioinfo/Comp Biology--Approved
Linda Amaral Zettler-Approved
Robert Campbell-Approved
Kristine Fields-Approved
Joan Hunt-Approved
8. Personnel Matters:
[...]
9. Old Business:
The General Scientific Meetings will not occur this year.
If the Science Council Chair cannot be present at the Board meeting, a Science Council member should be designated to attend.
There should be clear definitions on how national searches for scientists are carried out.
10. New Business:
The question was posed: Should Science Council be informed of upcoming openings and current status of ongoing searches? There was a discussion about this, and it was decided that if funding is involved, then it should be approved by the Director with Science Council advice where needed, and the process should be more centralized.
There was a discussion of the time frame for Science Council to be notified of potential applications. It was decided that after agreement of the individual to be considered, then Science Council should be notified.
The proposal for a Cell Sciences Center, presented by P. Smith, was discussed. Regenerative Biology is an area of interest that has been proposed for the Center. This could be a wonderful convergence between BioCurrents and Architectural Dynamics. Some MBL funds could be repurposed to create a seed fund to be named in honor of Dr. Inoué that could be used for the center. This has not been finalized, but was brought up to Science Council for input.
A letter signed by George Augustine was distributed to the committee. In the letter it was proposed to rename the Gemma after a major donor, to help offset the increasing squid collection costs. This letter will be passed on to the development office. In answer to a question regarding the naming of the Speck auditorium, the size of the donation(s) in honor of Dr. Speck was mentioned.
10. Adjournment:
The meeting adjourned at approximately 2:15 PM.
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