This is my first attempt to send an email to all the prospective participants in the SAMSI Program, Large-scale Computer Models for Environmental Systems, that starts this week and continues until the end of June. (If you received a blank email from me yesterday - apologies, that was an error.) This message covers the following topics: 1. Brief background about SAMSI and this program 2. How to get on and off this email list 3. Weekly meetings 4. Seminars 5. Courses 6. Workshops 7. Any other business 1. Brief background about SAMSI and this program SAMSI is the Statistical and Applied Mathematical Sciences Institute, a new (since July, 2002) NSF-funded mathematical sciences institute. It is physically located in the NISS Building in RTP. Further information about SAMSI is available from www.samsi.info. The program on Large-scale Computer Models for Environmental Systems is a six-month research program bringing together statisticians, mathematicians and environmental scientists interested in topics such as fluid flow through porous media, air pollution modeling, climate and weather models. A more detailed description of our objectives may be found on the program web page, www.samsi.info/env-home.html. 2. How to get on and off this email list This email list consists of (a) all those involved in some way with the organization of the program, (b) all those who have responded to earlier notices inviting people to register, (c) other individuals whom we have identified as likely to have some interest in what we're doing. If you don't want to receive regular messages about the program, please just let me know and I'll take you off the list. If you know of other individuals who might want to be on the list, please let me know and I'll add their names. Once the email list has stabilized, we'll try to set up an email alias so it will be possible to email the whole group without using a long list of individual email addresses. 3. Weekly meetings We have a weekly group meeting scheduled for Wednesdays at 11am, at SAMSI. Obviously there is no one time that will be suitable for everyone but we hope as many as possible will be able to attend meetings then. If you want to be part of the program and you cannot make that particular time slot, please let me know - depending on what people want to do and when they are available, we can arrange additional meetings at other times, or other kinds of activities outside the regular meeting schedule. As for what we discuss at these meetings - this is very much up to you, the participants in the program, to tell the organizers what you want to do. For logistical reasons, the workshops and the courses (see below) had to be set up well ahead of the actual program, but we (the organizers) have very few preconceptions about what to discuss at the weekly meetings. We would like to begin each week with a short business meeting where we summarize what different groups are doing, who is coming and going, and things like that. This will enable us to provide regular updates on what is going on and will also help us write the report that we eventually have to write for the NSF. Beyond that, however, it's very open. One model we might establish is for five or six working groups to be looking at specific problem areas - we could then spend part of the meeting time each week receiving reports of current activity from each of these groups. Another thing we might try to do during the weekly meetings is to have everyone give a short presentation (maybe 10 minutes) on what they are doing, so that during the course of the program, everyone can get to know something about everyone else's research. The first meeting is this Wednesday, January 8. This first meeting is especially important because we will be establishing priorities for the whole program, so I hope as many as possible can attend in person. However, please do let me know if you want to participate but are unable to come at this time. 4. Seminars We will have a weekly seminar (possibly two weekly seminars, depending on interest) at times still to be decided, but one option we are considering is to make the weekly Wednesday meeting a two-hour meeting and use the second hour (noon to 1pm) for a seminar. The seminar organizer is Rich McLaughlin . Please contact Rich if you would like to give a seminar about your own work, or if you have suggestions for speakers. 5. Courses There are two graduate-level courses taking place at SAMSI - ENVR 265 Multiphase Transport Phenomena At SAMSI, Tuesdays 2:30-5:30 pm Instructors: Professors W.G. Gray and C.T. Miller STAT 321 Environmental Statistics At SAMSI, Wednesdays 2:30-5:30 pm (may possibly be changed to 3:00-6:00 to avoid a timetable clash) Instructor: Professor R.L. Smith Please see the program web page for more details These course follow the UNC academic calendar - first class is this week (Jan 7/8), no class due to Spring Break on Mar 11/12, last classes Apr 22/23. Graduate students from all three Triangle universities may register for academic credit in these courses. Auditors are welcome. 6. Workshops Three workshops are taking place as part of the program - "Multi-Scale Modeling", February 2-7, at the Radisson Governers Inn, RTP. "Optimization", April 28-30, at the Radisson Governers Inn, RTP. "Spatial-Temporal Statistics", June 1-6, at the National Center for Atmospheric Research, Boulder, Colorado. Participation in these workshops is open to all but you must please register via the online registration form, and pay the registration fee, which is needed to cover essential expenses such as hire of meeting rooms and refreshments, coffee etc. For the February workshop, our initial registration deadline of December 31 is now past, but we will continue accepting registrations until the workshop is full. The registration page for the June workshop is not yet up, but we hope it will be within a week or so. Please refer to the website for information about funding to attend these workshops. 7. Any other business This is where we want to hear from you! If there are other activities that you would like to see as part of this program but are not covered by the above, please bring it up at one of the meetings or send an email to me or one of the other locally based organizers: Casey Miller , Montserrat Fuentes , Rich McLaughlin , Tim Kelley On behalf of the program organizing committee, Richard Smith