A Letter from President Stephen Wells

Dr. Stephen Wells

In past years, DRI's Annual Fund has provided support for building expansion, equipment, and a variety of other programs and activities. In all of these efforts, private support has proved to be instrumental in accomplishing the Institute's diverse research goals.

This year, the focus of the Institute's Annual Fund appeal is support for DRI's most prized asset: our faculty. In particular, I want to tell you about an outstanding group of newcomers and the Institute's commitment to helping them achieve their full potential as researchers. In this issue of the DRI News, you've met Dr. Alison Murray, a top-notch addition to our Division of Earth and Ecosystems Sciences. Besides Alison, this Fall we are fortunate also to have 12 other new additions to DRI's faculty. All of them bring to DRI outstanding scientific training and experience, an entreneurial spirit, a dedication to team-building, and a level of enthusiasm for their work that you would recognize immediately if you had the pleasure to meet them in person.

Since you may not have that opportunity, I would like to introduce you to several of them. The Profiles page in this online newsletter is dedicated to these individuals. Each profile gives brief personal and professional sketches, focusing on the expertise and interests each brings to DRI. I think you will notice immediately the depth, variety, and inventiveness they represent. Looking at them also gives a great overview of the interdisciplinary nature of DRI's work, and the Institute's dedication to partnering as a means to enhance its capabilities.

As an institution that earns almost all of its funding through research grants and contracts, DRI depends on its faculty for its annual income, in fact, its very viability. The Institute is fortunate, indeed, to have these new additions to an already stellar cadre of scientists. At the same time, DRI also has an obligation to nurture new researchers to prepare them for long-term and productive careers at DRI. In other words, we need to provide our new faculty members with the resources they need to "jump-start" their scientific careers. When we asked this year's group of newcomers what their needs were, the responses were wide-ranging, including: a drilling rig; coring equipment; a raft for examining lakebed sediments; time for proposal development and writing papers; and travel support to attend scientific workshops and conferences to meet with peers and present research findings.

While it seems unlikely that you have a drilling rig or coring equipment at your disposal, you can help meet our faculty's needs through a contribution to the 2002 DRI Annual Fund! We know that there are many, many call upon your philanthropy, but we hope the spirit of enthusiasm and the dedication to excellence that our faculty members represent will inspire you to support them and the Desert Research Institute.

Sincerely,

Dr. Stephen Wells