This is the second in a series of columns by Jeanette Wing, Assistant Director of NSF for CISE, covering items of interest from the directorate.

Personnel Updates

I am pleased to announce the following newcomers to CISE’s scientific staff. Alhussein Abouzeid, RPI, joins CNS as a program director; Sajal Das, University of Texas at Arlington, CNS; Qiang Ji, RPI, IIS; Dmitri Maslov, University of Waterloo, CCF; Jie Yang, Carnegie Mellon, IIS. Rajinder Khosla, at NSF since 1996 in the Engineering Directorate, joins CISE as the CNS Deputy Division Director. Mary Lou Maher, who joined IIS in 2006 from the University of Sydney, is now the IIS Deputy Division Director.

Huge thanks go to two rotators who left CISE in December: Timothy Pinkston, who served as the Expeditions PD last year while continuing to help with CCF programs, returns to USC; and Jie Wu, CNS, returns to Florida Atlantic University. Congratulations are in order also to Timothy and Jie for being elected 2009 IEEE Fellows.

CISE Advisory Committee

On Friday, October 17, CISE held an unusual Advisory Committee meeting in that we primarily focused on one theme: sustainability and energy. First, Dr. Tim Killeen, the new AD for the Geosciences Directorate, gave a presentation on the challenges and opportunities for the CISE community in climate modeling and prediction. Then, Dr. Carla Gomes from Cornell, as lead PI, gave a presentation of the goals for the newly CISE-awarded Expedition on “Computational Sustainability.” Finally, Dr. Doug Fisher, IIS PD, gave a presentation on GreenIT: Computing, Communications, and the Environment. He led a discussion on the role of CISE and the CISE community in meeting the broader societal grand challenge on energy/environment/climate change/ sustainability.

To round out the agenda, Melissa O’Neil, CISE AC member, gave a presentation and led a discussion on broadening participating in computing. I also gave updates on CISE since the May 2008 AC meeting.

Changes in Washington

Starting Wednesday, November 5, NSF was in “transition team” mode, with our preparing and gathering documents at all levels for the incoming Obama Administration. We provided workshop reports and academy studies—to which many of you directly contributed—in support of NSF’s four goals: Discovery, Learning, Research Infrastructure, and Stewardship. We hope to make clear that the CISE research community is making essential contributions to the Nation’s health, security and prosperity. CISE program directors will be asking you for grant “highlights” in the next few months, so please provide us with information on your greatest accomplishments—we'll be sharing the most compelling examples with the new Administration and Congress in early 2009. We want to make a great and lasting impression!

The transition team moved swiftly, as the review of NSF started Monday, November 17. Jim Kohlenberger, executive director of the Voice on the Net Coalition, and Henry Rivera, a lawyer with telecommunications expertise at the firm Wiley Rein, led the review. Rounding out the team were Henry Kelly and Michelle McMurry. I have been on call for any questions about any CISE program and any NSF program in which CISE participates, such as Cyber-Enabled Discovery and Innovation. Their report on NSF feeds into a bigger review of all federal agencies, departments, and executive offices.