[…]

The minutes of the August 4 meeting were approved as corrected.

2. Report from the CASO

(i) Hugh Ducklow has unconditionally accepted the position as Director of the Ecosystems Center. He will join the MBL on May 1, 2007.
(ii) There will be an orientation at the MBL on October 27-28 for incoming Brown-MBL students. Four new students have been admitted for the current year. One additional student (working with Rudolf Oldenbourg) has transferred into the Program. This brings the total of students in the Program to fifteen. One student will be graduating in May.
(iii) An Academic Affairs Committee (AAC) of the Board of Trustees has been established to inform the Trustees on scientific and academic matters. This committee (Co-Chairs: Mark Fishman and Paul De Weer) will hold an all day meeting on February 2, 2007 prior to the meeting of the full board. Although there is a potential for overlap between the AAC and Science Council, Paul De Weer indicated that these two committees can work together, and that an effort will be made to hold a joint meeting.

3. Tab 2
Paul De Weer noted, for the benefit of new members, that the items listed behind Tab 2 in the Agenda Book for the current (October 21, 2006) meeting of Science Council regarding “Policy on Scientific Appointments”, and any future amendments thereto, will be used as basis for future deliberations on Personnel Matters.

4. Applications for Corporation Membership
Discussion focused on the following issues:

(a) What are the benefits of Corporation membership? Complimentary subscription to Biological Bulletin; receipt of all MBL publications; access to Library at all hours; ability to serve on Corporation Committees.
(b) Other potential benefits discussed included: Use of MBL e-mail; use of off-season housing; incremental price structure for membership.

Gary Borisy stated that benefits of corporation membership should be re-considered with a view to increasing membership. Gary proposed setting up a task force in the Spring to discuss this.

The following applications for Corporation Membership were approved:

Walter Massey
Charles M. Rosenthal
Bruce A. Beal
Annette Williamson
John W. Rowe
M. Howard Jacobson
Christopher John Frederickson
Alice S. Whittemore

A move to encourage all Trustees to be Corporation Members resulted in the first six names on this list. Membership is open to all who contribute through research, teaching, or other significant activities, to the mission of the Institution. Application forms should reflect that fact.

Corporation Membership should be publicized to faculty and students in the courses.

5. Personnel Matters
[…]

6. Director’s Report
In the expansion of the resident research program, Gary Borisy stated that he would like to engage various constituencies to determine

• What is the best science?
• What science can be done at MBL to special advantage?

During his first months at the MBL Gary has posed these questions to Faculty in the MBL Summer Courses. In addition he has met with various groups holding meetings at the MBL which have included members of the following research communities: sea urchin (development); molecular parasitology; molecular mycology.

In these discussions several good ideas have been identified.

The process for evaluating these ideas has been/will involve:

• Brainstorming
• Picking promising ideas
• Inviting specific external blue ribbon committees to consider each of these ideas and to write a white paper based on their evaluation/recommendation.
• Presenting these ideas to various external and internal groups for action.

Academic Affairs Committee of the Board of Trustees (AAC)
The Science Council was reminded that they advise the Director on matters of a scientific or educational nature. The AAC should not conflict with this function.

Members of the AAC have indicated that they want to take a forward looking approach, providing advice on new ideas. Gary indicated that he would only bring ideas to the AAC worthy of their review.

Mark Fishman, co-chair of the AAC, has indicated that he will dedicate two one-day meetings a year to a site review. The first two meetings are planned for February and August 2007. The first topic for discussion is in the area of microbial ecology which would form a link between the Bay Paul Center and the Ecosystems Center. A blue ribbon committee is being assembled. The topic for the August meeting remains to be selected.

Gary stated that the MBL would take whatever action is needed along the way to take care of opportunities as they might present themselves. This will become part of the review process.

In response:

• Science Council expressed strong support for microbial ecology as a proposed area for recruitment/expansion and passed a motion to this effect which stated their encouragement to the Director for his plans and process to expand the year round research program at the MBL.
• Paul De Weer stated that Science Council will expedite reviews for appointment to facilitate the process.

Science Council asked Gary to share with them other potential areas for expansion. His response (in no specific order) included:

• Biodiversity & Biomedical Informatics (Retrieval of Information)
• Marine Genomics/Developmental Genomics
• Imaging Technology & Cellular Dynamics
• Computational Cell Biology (Explaining and understanding complexity)

Gary stressed the need to strengthen ties with the Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory especially with their Educational Program.

7. Education
There being no applications, the proposed course on Fucus Biology has been canceled.

Paul De Weer suggested that the model of holding a workshop as a pre-requisite for offering a new course might be useful and would gauge interest in the topic.

8. Old Business

(i) Paul De Weer raised the issue regarding attendance of the Science Council Chair at the Board of Trustees meeting. He indicated that the CASO could present the Chair’s report to the Board of Trustees when needed. Science Council agreed.
(ii) Paul asked if there was any additional information regarding input on naming opportunities as discussed in the previous meeting of Science Council.
(iii) Gary responded that Development is still working on the guidelines for naming. He further indicated that he will ask Carol Pooser to bring a draft of this document to the Science Council for their review.
(iv) Regarding access of MBL e-mail addressees from outside the institution, Gary stated that he will consider how to execute on this.

9. New Business
Peter Smith presented a proposal requesting endorsement/approval from Science Council to move forward with the proposal to develop a Center for Cellular Dynamics.

Barbara Ehrlich asked - Could this be the topic for the August meeting of the AAC?

Gary Responded that this could be a good topic for that meeting. A potential weakness is the need to identify a differentiable component at the MBL. However, this topic does provide underlying technology for what we do in the Embryology, Physiology and Neurobiology courses. Nonetheless, we must be realistic about the problems. The success could be at the interface between biology and physics.

We must have imaging technology but we must determine what it is linked to.

Science Council voted unanimously to approve:

• Support for the initiative to prepare a document proposing establishment of a Center in the area of Cell Science.

Science Council encouraged Peter Smith to continue developing his proposal.

The meeting was adjourned at 2:10 pm.

Respectfully submitted
E.A. Dawidowicz