Comings and Goings

The LTER Network has experienced quite a bit of movement among its members in the past few months. A brief sample is noted on this page, our own version of bold faced names...

As of 1 January 2004, Alan Knapp moved from Kansas State University to Colorado State University in Fort Collins. “It was hard to leave KSU after almost 20 years with my colleagues at the Konza Prairie LTER,” says Knapp. Upon locating lost boxes, books, and files, Knapp says he “fully expects to play an active role in the SGS LTER program.”

Meanwhile, Dr. Corinna Gries has assumed responsibility as the new data manager at Central Arizona – Phoenix LTER.

At the Bonanza Creek LTER site in Alaska, data manager Scott D. Miller is leaving LTER for the U.S. Park Service. Also Marilyn Walker, lead-PI at BNZ, is leaving to pursue a business interest in Colorado; Jamie Hollingsworth has been promoted from research technician to site manager; and Brian Charlton is the new senior research technician.

At Kellogg LTER, Sven Bohm has replaced Tim Bergsma as data manager. Tim and his family are now in Connecticut.

As of 1 October 2004, Dr. Kari Bisbee O’Connell will take over the helm as the new Director of the H.J. Andrews Experimental Forest. She replaces Art McKee who retired after 22 years. O’Connell’s involvement with LTER began at the Shortgrass Steppe site in Colorado where she was an NSF Research Experience for Undergraduates fellow in 1994. She is a co-Principal Investigator of the Andrews LTER program and has been involved with the education program at the Andrews for the past two years.

O’Connell will spend 50% of her time at the Andrews Experimental Forest headquarters in Blue River (phone: 541- 822-6336) and 50% of her time in Corvallis (336 FSL; 541-750-7324). Email: kari.oconnell@oregonstate.edu.

At the Santa Barbara Coastal LTER site, Margaret O’Brien began as information manager in January 2004. O’Brien began work with the data management group in 2003. Before Comings and Goings joining the LTER, she was a programmer at ICESS (Institute for Computational Earth System Science, UCSB). Margaret joins the SBC team with a Master’s degree in Biological Oceanography from Oregon State University. She can be reached via email at: mob@icess.ucsb.edu.

The LTER Network Office has recently replaced two staff positions and filled one new staff position. Duane Costa (dcosta@LTERnet.edu) is the new analyst/programmer working on the Network Information System. Duane brings 15 years of programming experience to this position. Currently, Duane is working on a metadata harvester to populate the LTER metadata catalog from site metadata documents. Michelle Murillo (mmurillo@LTERnet.edu) returned to LTER as data manager, replacing the position recently vacated by Troy Maddux. Michelle, who was previously involved with the Andrews and Sevilleta LTER sites, is in the process of bulletproofing our databases as part of the integration of network databases project.

And, finally, Jeanine McGann (jmcgann@LTERnet.edu) was hired as Web Designer, filling the position vacated by Marshall White’s promotion to Senior Web Developer. Jeanine cut her teeth at the LNO on documenting Ecological Metadata Language. Jeanine is currently mapping all the LTER Network Websites to get an understanding of their breadth and complexity. We welcome all of these folks to the LTER Network and anticipate a productive relationship with each.