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| New NCED Director and Chair Recipient | | On August 1, NCED will welcome its third director, current co-director Efi Foufoula-Georgiou. NCED began in August 2002 as a National Science Foundation (NSF) Science and Technology Center (STC) devoted to establishing a new interdisciplinary science—earth-surface science. Since then, directors Gary Parker and Chris Paola have successfully guided the Center from its inception to its current standing as a nationally recognized, multi-disciplinary, multi-institutional research organization. As Paola steps down from his current role as director to fully devote his time to research and teaching, Foufoula-Georgiou will take the lead. According to Foufoula-Georgiou, "Gary and Chris have done an exemplary job as directors and a huge service to the University of Minnesota and the geosciences community in leading NCED to the internationally renown Center it is today. I hope to add to its successes in the years ahead. A particular challenge in the Center’s remaining four years of NSF funding will be to secure NCED’s legacy, intellectual or otherwise, such that its international presence continues long past the NSF investment." In addition to Foufoula-Georgiou's recent appointment to NCED director, she now holds the new Joseph T. and Rose S. Ling Chair in Environmental Engineering. This endowed chair provides $2 million to support environmental engineering research and education. | | Outdoor StreamLab: Up and Coming | | The NCED/St. Anthony Falls Laboratory (SAFL) Outdoor StreamLab (OSL) will be busy in 2008 with five projects planned for the OSL Riparian Basin: (project 1) using current knowledge of river channel processes to predict the equilibrium topography of a sand-bed channel within a floodplain, (project 2) determination of the dominant control of cross-stream super-elevation within meander bends, (project 3) determination of appropriate metrics for sediment-related total maximum daily loads, (project 4) establishment of ecological function in an engineered sand-bed channel, and (project 5) prediction of water residence time and sedimentation within patches of aquatic vegetation. This same OSL Riparian Basin took center stage last month during the SAFL/NCED Stream Research Workshop. Workshop participants, many from state and federal agencies, gained a thorough knowledge of SAFL, NCED, and the OSL, and viewed the Riparian Basin, the first of the OSL’s research laboratory components. As a result of the workshop, the OSL gained local and national attention, and SAFL/NCED gained insight into the needs of (and potential OSL projects for) the larger stream restoration community. |  | | Workshop participants in the SAFL auditorium (left) and looking over a bridge at the OSL Riparian Basin (right). | | | | Undergraduate Research Opportunities | | The National Science Foundation—Division of Earth Sciences—recently selected NCED as a Research Experience for Undergraduates Site. NCED will have 10 positions a year, beginning summer 2008, for undergraduates interested in doing research on river and coastal restoration. The application deadline is March 1, 2008. | |
