Director's Message

Dear colleagues, The Annual Scientific Report for 2000 represents a first for me as the new NCAR Director. These past six months have been truly exciting as I have learned about NCAR's broad range of programs and its tremendous potential for the future in all key areas of its mission: i) basic research, ii) service to the broad university community and society, and iii) education and outreach. This website serves to provide a sense of the breadth and depth of our recent accomplishments, as well as some pointers to the future. I encourage you to explore the web site and provide me with any feedback on its content and/or on future directions for NCAR.

I held two "all-hands" Town Meetings this past month at our Mesa and Foothills facilities to engage in a dialog about NCAR's future, and to reflect on some of the actions we've taken since June to define a shared vision of that future and to work towards making it a reality. While there is still much to do, we have made notable progress on many fronts and have initiated many activities that I expect to bear fruit in the coming months and years. The following paragraphs are derived from these open town meetings.

The driving reasons for establishing what was originally called the "National Institute for Atmospheric Research" are still valid and vital today. It is amazing to me how well these words have stood the test of time. I quote from the executive summary of the1959 Blue Book where the driving reasons to establish NCAR were listed as follows:

1. The need to mount an attack on the fundamental atmospheric problems on a scale commensurate with their global nature and importance.
2. The fact that the extent of such an attack requires facilities and technological assistance beyond those that can properly be made available at individual universities.
3. The fact that the difficulties of the problems are such that they require the best talents from various disciplines to be applied to them in a coordinated fashion, on a scale not feasible in a university department.
4. The fact that such an Institute offers the possibility of preserving the natural alliance of research and education without unbalancing the university programs.

I believe these reasons are still compelling, and the partnership with the universities more important than ever. We still need to focus our attack on the fundamental atmospheric problems of a global nature and this requires facilities and technology beyond those normally available at universities. Today, we must increasingly work on large-scope interdisciplinary problems that require effective coordination among talented individuals in many institutions. The last bullet of the blue book rationale is particularly important to me - it speaks to the need for a close connection between research and education. Forty years after these words were written, the integration of research and education at all scholastic levels is now a major objective of the National Science Foundation and one that NCAR still shares.

I see NCAR in the midst of three revolutions: the convergence of atmospheric and earth-systems sciences, the rapid advance of information technology, and the synthesis of research and education. In response, NCAR is developing a strategic plan for the coming half decade. High quality science applied to society will be increasingly important for decision-makers in the next decade and NCAR will have an important role to play as an integrator of research and tools across disciplines and institutions.

In the context of emerging national initiatives, NCAR will integrate its programs within the institution, with NSF, and with the larger biogeosciences and information technology spheres. Some of these activities are already underway and you can learn more about them elsewhere in this report. This integrative role can move NCAR toward becoming more of a center for all the geosciences, without limiting its traditional strengths in the atmospheric and related sciences. An interdisciplinary focus, including societal interactions, can provide leadership to the geosciences community as a whole.

The information technology revolution that is occurring presents both enormous opportunities and challenges. As part of NCAR's planning process, we completed a strategic plan for high performance simulation this year that puts forward six goal areas ranging from improved software engineering practices to continued development of advanced, numerical algorithms, data storage, archiving and distributing systems, and new management structures for the interdisciplinary teams needed to envision, develop and construct complex numerical models to simulate the earth system. This strategic plan has shaped our response to the NSF's Information Technology Research initiative and is assisting us as we begin several new model development activities.

Education and outreach have been an integral part of NCAR's mission since the beginning. A new strategic plan for these activities is also underway. The plan will provide both needed integration of current activities and a blueprint for the future. The mission statement included in the draft plan is "to advance and support education and training at all levels and to promote scientific literacy in all areas that relate to the earth's atmosphere." We will work hard to achieve these lofty goals.

Finally, NCAR must be a leader in the effort to bring diversity and new, historically underrepresented groups, into the geosciences. Efforts have been initiated at NCAR to increase the number of early career scientists, foster greater diversity in the scientific ranks, improve mentoring and provide for career development of all staff. Valuing our people is a major NCAR priority.

I invite you to visit the rest of this website to learn more about the exciting and significant activities that are taking place in NCAR's divisions and programs and to tap into our "virtual center". We take pride in making our tools and resources, as well as our new discoveries, widely available to the research community. I encourage you to come back often to see what we offer through this electronic medium, whether you are a researcher, a student, a teacher, or a member of the interested public that supports our national center.

Tim Killeen
Director