Jefferson Lab and Nuclear Physics

12-GeV Upgrade - Critical Decision Zero Approval. Deputy Secretary of Energy Kyle McSlarrow announced the Department of Energy's approval of CD-0 for the Jefferson Lab's 12-Gev Upgrade at an All Staff meeting held April 19 at Jefferson Lab. Congresswoman Jo Ann Davis, Congressman Robert C. "Bobby" Scott, and Senator John Warner joined McSlarrow to announce the DOE's approval of the "mission need" for upgrading the Jefferson Lab Facility. JLab press release April 22, 2004. DOE press release April 19, 2004. Other News releases, JLab 12-GeV Upgrade.

JLab Chief Scientist. SURA welcomes the arrival of Dr. Anthony Thomas to the Jefferson Lab as its Chief Scientist and Head of the Theory Group. Thomas joined the Lab in late March, coming from his prior position at the University of Adelaide, Australia where he was the Elder Professor of Physics in the Department of Physics and Mathematical Physics, Department Chair, and Director of the Special Research Centre for the Subatomic Structure of Matter.

SURA/JLab Fellowship Program. The SURA/JLab Fellowship evaluation committee concluded its review of 23 proposal applications. Eight fellowships have been awarded to graduate students at SURA universities for research at the Jefferson Lab. Awardees will begin their research at the Lab in September 2004. SURA contact: Hugh Loweth.

• Alvin Kiswandhi, Florida State University
• Hovhannes Grigoryan, Louisiana State University
• Yingchuan Li, University of Maryland
• Peter Monaghan, MIT
• Richard Thomson, North Carolina State University
• Clarisse Tur, University of South Carolina
• Herry Kwee, College of William and Mary
• Bryan Moffit, College of William and Mary

Coastal Research

SURA OOS Tech 2004. As part of the SCOOP initiative, SURA is hosting OOS Tech 2004, May 10 and 11, 2004, at the Georgetown University Conference Center. This two-day workshop will begin to engage the coastal community in the data standards development process, in support of the Data Standards Project, a joint project of five ONR (Office of Naval Research)-funded programs including SURA, Stevens Institute of Technology, University of Southern Mississippi, SEA-COOS, and GoMOOS. SURA contacts: Phil Bodgen and Sue Fratkin.

Information Technology

Regional Network Infrastructure. SURA continues discussions with the National LambdaRail (NLR) to explore areas of collaboration, including technical and financial analysis of several routes of common interest to both SURA and NLR. NLR has finalized commitments for segments of its backbone through the SURA region from DC to Atlanta to Jacksonville using Level3 fiber. Additionally, the State of Louisiana recently committed $5M in support of a collaborative effort with SURA to utilize AT&T fiber to establish a southern leg of the NLR extending from Jacksonville to Houston and creating an NLR node in Baton Rouge. Upon the recommendation of the SURA IT Committee, the SURA Board of Trustees endorsed the advancing of a collaboration agreement with the NLR that capitalizes on the Louisiana commitment. SURA press release, April 7, 2004. SURA IT Committee Chair: Dave Lambert. SURA contact: Gary Crane.

SURA/CIPP CyberSecurity Symposium. The SURA/CIPP CyberSecurity Symposium was held on March 8 and 9 at the George Mason University. Over 60 faculty researchers and security officers, representing 30 SURA universities, convened to promote research-based security collaborations among the SURA membership. Keynote speakers from ITRD, DOE, NSF, and EDUCAUSE participated in the symposium. The SURA Cybersecurity Working Group is developing a web directory of SURA member cybersecurity researchers (to be available on the SURA Web site), a database of security research taking place at SURA institutions, and a white paper describing opportunities and potential benefits of inter-institutional security research collaboration. Working Group Lead: Joy Hughes, Vice President and CIO, George Mason University. SURA contact: Mary Fran Yafchak.

GridThink Working Groups. The SURA IT Committee endorsed several actions of the working groups formed from the participants at the January 2004 GridThink and NMI Planning meeting. The GridThink Working Groups have been exploring four specific project areas in greater depth: a grid-enabled collaborative teaching environment, improved analysis of grid application requirements, a regional grid conference, and a regional certificate authority. The following are among the activities proceeding in the GridThink groups. SURA contact: Mary Fran Yafchak.

• Immediate development of a SURA regional Grid conference.
• Deeper investigation of the issues surrounding enterprise-to-grid authentication and possible roles for SURA to assist its members in this area.
• Ongoing analysis and development of grid requirements for key SURA applications, including SCOOP and a potential grid-enabled collaborative teaching environment.

6th Annual SURA VIDE® Digital Video Workshop. A record number of 66 speakers presented 45 presentations at the SURA-VIDE® 2004 Digital Video Workshop held in March at the University Place Conference Center, Indiana University-Purdue University, Indianapolis. Sponsors for the workshop included RADVision, Microsoft, Polycom and VBrick. Topics including e-health and medical applications, middleware for voice and video, public broadcasting over the Internet, distributed learning and educational applications, and new technologies (MPEG4, SIP, HDTV-over-IP) were covered. Colloquiums on Internet2 Commons Coordinator Training, Education, Public Broadcasting, and the Internet and ViDe® Workshop on H.350 were offered as part of the pre- and post-workshop agenda. SURA contact: Sue Fratkin.

VIDE® Videoconferencing Cookbook, v.4. The fourth edition of the VIDE® Cookbook went live in March, expanding the Cookbook's mission to provide sound and timely technical information in a useful and user-friendly way. Version 4 introduces specialized information for the K-12 community and marks the Cookbook's first translations into different languages. VIDE® is collaborating with Ana Preston, Program Manager for International Relations at Internet2, to coordinate translations into Spanish and Portuguese within the next six months. See press release, February 13, 2004.

Technology Transfer and Academic Outreach

SURA/ORNL Summer Cooperative Research Program in Material Sciences. SURA has awarded funds to eight university faculty members for support of ten graduate students who will undertake materials research projects during summer 2004 at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL). SURA Coordinator and PI, Thomas Hutchinson, University of Virginia, led the review of fourteen applications for research proposals utilizing the specialized scientific facilities at ORNL. This Summer Cooperative Research Program is funded by the Department of Energy and is open to graduate students from any university. Awards have been made to faculty from the following universities, including five SURA universities, for support of their graduate students. SURA contact: Hugh Loweth.

• Florida Atlantic University
• University of Florida (two projects)
• Lehigh University
• North Carolina State University
• Pennsylvania State University
• University of Tennessee-Knoxville
• West Virginia University

Southeast Technology Expo. RTI, intellectual property law firm of Thomas, Kayden, Horstemeyer, & Risley (TKHR) and SURA are partnering to launch a series of events that will highlight the commercial opportunities emanating from the Southeast region's rich research and development resources. The first annual Southeast Technology Expo, New Frontiers in Therapeutics: Emerging Technologies in Infectious Disease and Oncology, will be held at the Sheraton Imperial Hotel, adjacent to the Research Triangle Park, on October 5-7, 2004. The first Expo will focus on emerging anticancer, antiviral, and antimicrobial therapeutics, along with supporting technologies such as bioinformatics, drug delivery, and genomics. Expo organizers anticipate as many as 30 universities will participate at this event. The Southeast Region represents one of the top three concentrations of university-based R & D in the life sciences. Southeast Technology Expo contact: Susan E. Brown, 919-541-7401. SURA contact: Matt Thomas.

COVITS 2004. SURA is participating in COVITS 2004 as a Silver Level Sponsor. The upcoming Commonwealth of Virginia's Information Technology Symposium is a world-class conference focused on the convergence of business, government, and academia leadership to identify, discuss, and propose solutions to critical technology issues. SURA's participation will bring focus to the technical capabilities surrounding Jefferson Lab and the Hampton Roads universities. The conference will be held in Norfolk, Virginia, on September 26-28, 2004. Keynote speaker for this year's event is NBC Nightly News anchorman Tom Brokaw. SURA contact and COVITS Advisory Committee member: Matt Thomas.

AUTM . SURA's booth at the 25th annual Association of University Technology Managers (AUTM) annual conference, March 3-6, 2004 in San Antonio, Texas, was very well-received.  This event provided the opportunity for SURA to promote technology transfer of Jefferson Lab technologies as it brought together thousands of technology transfer directors and associates from universities across the world, plus numerous representatives from the private sector, service industries, and government labs. SURA contact: Matt Thomas.

Terahertz Applications Symposium. SURA hosted the Terahertz Applications Symposium : Bridging the Gap from R&D to the Marketplace on March 16-17 in Washington, DC. This forum provided an opportunity for education and discussion between academia and industry regarding emerging terahertz technologies, with a focus on medical imaging, pharmaceutical, and security applications.  Over 50 attendees from sixteen states and three countries participated, with over half of those coming from industry.  SURA contact: Matt Thomas.

Executive, Management, Administrative

Board Appointments. SURA welcomes J.L. Albert to the Board of Trustees. Albert is the Associate Provost for Information Systems and Technology and Chief Information Officer at Georgia State University and will serve as a member of the SURA IT Committee. SURA contact: Elizabeth Lawson.

Board Appointments. The SURA Board elected the following Committee members to the Jefferson Lab Committee Steering Group. SURA contact: Elizabeth Lawson.

• June Matthews, MIT, Chair
• David Ernst, Vanderbilt, 3-year term
• Alex Dzierba, Indiana, 3-year term
• Larry Dennis, Florida State, 2-year term
• Steve Wallace, Maryland, 1-year term
• Charles Glashausser, Rutgers, 1-year term
• Jerry Draayer, SURA President, ex officio
• Christoph Leemann, JLab Director, ex officio
• Paul Stoler, Rensselaer, JLab User Group Chair, ex officio

Board Action - JLab Competition. At its Spring meeting, the SURA Board of Trustees adopted a recommendation from its Executive Committee to pursue a contract from the Department of Energy (DOE) that will allow it to continue its stewardship of the Jefferson Lab. SURA press release, April 7, 2004.

Board Action - NLR Collaboration . At its Spring meeting, the SURA Board of Trustees endorsed advancing a collaboration agreement with the National LambdaRail (NLR) that capitalizes on a complementary commitment from the State of Louisiana to help complete a major component of a new, national research and education (R&E) optical network. SURA press release, April 7, 2004.

SURA Staff. Monique Bonner joins SURA as an Office Assistant. Bonner has over ten years experience providing administrative support in both the public and private sectors, including the DC government and Marriott Corporation. In her position with SURA, Bonner will be responsible for receptionist, secretarial, and other administrative support duties.

Fall 2004 Board Meeting. Council Chair, Chancellor John White announced that the University of Arkansas will host the Board for its Fall meeting in Fayetteville on November 4 & 5, 2004. SURA contact: Elizabeth Lawson.