Newsletter
A bi-monthly newsletter for the NSF Science and Technology Center on
Materials and Devices for Information Technology Research |
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TABLE OF CONTENTS |
CMDITR Bids Farewell to Alvin Kwiram
CMDITR sends warm wishes to Alvin Kwiram in his retirement from the University of Washington and CMDITR. We were very fortunate to have Alvin transition in 2002 from his role as Vice Provost for Research at the University of Washington to the position of Executive Director of CMDITR. With the depth of his administrative skills and experience, Alvin has been instrumental in anchoring the CMDITR at UW, by solidifying relationships within the UW and Seattle community to allow the STC to thrive. His efforts on behalf of the CMDITR have been invaluable in negotiating the first Cooperative Agreement (our governing document) between the National Science Foundation and the University of Washington. This document required establishing an inter-institutional policy for handling intellectual property and other challenging management issues. His leadership has impacted the Center in many ways including his efforts in Chairing the Educational Advisory Committee. Alvin also took the lead with respect to development of our very successful ethics training modules. In past years, he has been active in promoting the State of Washington Advanced Technology Initiative, the American Chemical Society Workshop on the Chemistry of Information Technology, and the American Association for the Advancement of Science Symposium on 21st Century Photonics--very impactful activities associated with the CMDITR. More recently, he has spearheaded the Washington Nanophotonics Initiative. Even though Alvin will be retiring, he will still be really busy. He will continue to lead the International Conference on Molecular Photonics: Interaction of Light with Nanostructured Materials, to be held at Friday Harbor Laboratories this August. He is also the chair of the Global Development Advisory Board in the in the Worldwide University Network, which is a consortium of about 17 leading universities from around the world that are working together to tackle major global challenges such as climate change, infectious diseases, poverty, population, energy and a host of other topics more regional in nature. He will also continue to chair the Graduate Education Advisory Board of the American Chemical Society, which is concerned with the state of graduate education in chemistry and with the needs and aspirations of graduate students and postdocs in the discipline. As if this weren't enough, he is also planning to stage an international conference next year in Seattle focused on the role of the modern research university in the era of globalization. The focus will be on global health as an exemplar of areas in which major research universities can play a critical role on the global stage. An integral part of this effort will be to promote the vision of building research capacity in universities in developing nations by enlisting universities in developed countries to partner with sister institutions for this purpose. We thank Alvin for all that he has done for the CMDITR and wish him the best in his retirement. Save the DateBeginning of CMDITR Year 6 2007 STC Directors' Meeting 2008 CMDITR Retreat 2008 CMDITR IAP EXPO |
