In October 2007, Hugh Ducklow (PI, PAL), Nancy Grimm (PI, CAP) and Scott Collins (PI, SEV) were invited to participate in the 2007 George Bush US-China Relations Conference held this year in Washington DC.
The goal of the conference series, hosted by Texas A & M University, The Chinese People's Association for Friendship with Foreign Countries, The George Bush Presidential Library Foundation, and The George Bush School of Public Service, is to "promote one of the world's most important relationships and to help strengthen and expand its academic and business collaborations."
Plenary speakers included several current and former Cabinet Secretaries, and the banquet dinner was hosted by former President George H.W. Bush.
Hugh "Duck" Ducklow, a Red Sox mega-fan, ducked out of the Bush-hosted banquet early to catch game 1 of the World Series while another Red Sox devotee, Scott Collins, proudly bragged about his ticket to attend Game 5 to be played later in Denver.
In a somewhat less lofty but nonetheless highly successful roundtable session on International Polar Year (IPY) and collaborative research in polar regions, Collins discussed the challenges and benefits of collaborative and integrative science, Grimm highlighted a number of on-going international research collaborations involving US LTER scientists, and Ducklow described US polar LTER research and the potential for collaborations between US and Chinese scientists in arctic and Antarctic regions.
The session was also attended by the National Science Foundation's Roberta Marinelli (OPP), Henry Gholz (LTER Program Director, who moderated part of the roundtable session), and Karl Erb (Director OPP) who presented additional opportunities for US-China collaboration in polar regions.
More information about this conference can be found at http://china-us.tamu.edu/archives/2007.
By Scott Collins, SEV