After 10 years at the helm of the LTER Coordinating Committee (CC), James R. Gosz has resigned his position effective December 1, 2005, to take up a two-year position at the National Science Foundation (NSF).
Gosz, who is also director of the New Mexico Experimental Program to Stimulate Competitive Research (EPSCoR), will take up the new position as senior advisor for the NSF’s national EPSCoR program starting December 16, 2005.
“I have discussed this at length with my family and all are convinced that this position is valuable and I should take advantage of it,” Gosz said, adding that he was convinced he could be of help in the NSF’s restructuring of the national EPSCoR program.
In accordance with NSF regulations, Gosz could not continue to chair the LTER CC, nor as principal investigator (PI) for the LTER Planning Grant. Following the bylaws of the LTER Network, John Magnuson of the University of Wisconsin and the North Temperate Lakes LTER site was selected by the Executive Committee and has agreed to serve as chair beginning on December 1, 2005. Magnuson (see full bio at http://limnology.wisc.edu/personnel/magnuson/magnuson.html) will serve until a new chair is elected at the spring 2006 CC meeting at Cedar Creek. Magnuson is a distinguished scientist with a long history with LTER , and the Executive Committee is grateful that he has accepted this challenge.
Scott Collins, director of the Sevilleta LTER and biology professor at the University of New Mexico, will become the new PI on the Planning Grant. Collins and the other members of the Science Task Force (Barbara Benson, Dan Childers, and Ali Whitmer) are moving forward with planned activities in association with the Planning Grant Conference Committee. This group will meet in November to undertake the next phase of planning.