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State of BER February 18, 2009

Biological and Environmental Research. State of BER February 18, 2009. Anna Palmisano, Ph.D. Associate Director of Science Biological and Environmental Research. Biological and Environmental Research. Outline of Talk. DOE leadership Budget updates BER Personnel

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State of BER February 18, 2009

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  1. Biological and Environmental Research State of BERFebruary 18, 2009 Anna Palmisano, Ph.D. Associate Director of Science Biological and Environmental Research

  2. Biological and Environmental Research Outline of Talk • DOE leadership • Budget updates • BER Personnel • Creating a Long Term Vision • News from the Divisions • Science Focus Areas • Intra- and interagency partnerships VIII. BERAC Activities: Looking Ahead…

  3. Biological and Environmental Research Secretary of Energy: Dr. Steven Chu • Nobel Laureate in Physics 1997 • Director of Lawrence Berkeley National Lab (LBNL) since 2004 • Distinguished career at Bell Labs, Stanford, UC-Berkeley • Helped to launch Bioenergy Research Center at LBNL • Priorities include biology & biotechnology, climate & environment • Confirmed by Senate on Jan. 13, 2009 • Secretary Chu, Feb. 12, New York Times: “A “revolution” in science and technology would be required if the world is to reduce its dependence on fossil fuels and curb the emissions of carbon dioxide and other heat-trapping gases linked to global warming.”

  4. President’s National Objectives for DOE—Energy to Secure America’s Future • Quickly Implement the Economic Recovery Package: Create Millions of New Green Jobs and Lay the Foundation for the Future • Restore Science Leadership: Strengthen America’s Role as the World Leader in Science and Technology • Reduce GHG emissions: Drive emissions 20 Percent below 1990 levels by 2020 • Enhance energy security: Save More Oil than the U.S Currently Imports from the Middle East and Venezuela Combined within 10 years • Enhance Nuclear Security: Strengthen non-proliferation activities, reduce global stockpiles of nuclear weapons, and maintain safety and reliability of the US stockpile

  5. Strategic Framework: Science and Discovery at the Core Clean, Secure Energy Lower GHG emissions Science Discovery Innovation National Security Economic Prosperity

  6. Biological and Environmental Research Priority : Science and Discovery“Invest in science to achieve transformational discoveries” • Focus on transformational science 2. Develop science and engineering talent 3. Collaborate universally

  7. Biological and Environmental Research Other DOE Leadership Positions • Under Secretary of Science has not been identified • Dr. Pat Dehmer is acting as Director of Office of Science and continues as Deputy Director of Science Programs

  8. Biological and Environmental Research Budget: A walk on the wild side! • FY2009 • Currently still under a continuing resolution (CR) which limits spending • Anticipate omnibus within the next few weeks • FY2010 • Working on priorities for President’s Budget • Anticipate submitting budget to Congress in March/April • FY2011 • Begin preparing in April

  9. Biological and Environmental Research American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (a.k.a. “The Stimulus”) • The focus of the stimulus is on infrastructure and construction rather than operations and multi-year research.  • DOE's Office of Science was mentioned in the conference report for $1.6B. • The bill is expected to be signed by the President. • Many great ideas, but nothing has been finalized, pending Secretary level approval. • Stay tuned....

  10. Biological and Environmental Research BER Budget Profile

  11. Biological and Environmental Research BER Personnel • Recruited Dr. Sharlene Weatherwax as Director of Biological Systems Science Division • Joined DOE Office of Science, Basic Energy Sciences in 1999 • Joined BER as program manager in 2005 • Strong background in both microbiology and plant science • Dr. Weatherwax earned her B.S. in Biochemistry from the University of California, Los Angeles, and her Ph.D. in biochemistry on microbial genetics and enzymology from UC Berkeley in 1989.

  12. Biological and Environmental Research BER Personnel Biological Systems Science Division • Recruiting Plant Biologist, Program Manager (closes 3/16) • Recruiting Program Specialist for Biological Systems Science • Finalizing IPA’s (rotators) recruitments • Plant molecular biology • Climate modeling • Dr. Patrick Glynn (on detail to BER) moved to SC-2 as Senior Technical Policy Advisor Climate and Environmental Sciences Division • Recruitment for Division Director for Climate and Environmental Sciences is still on hold—Dr. Wanda Ferrell is currently acting. • Roger Dahlman has returned from 8 month detail at Climate Change Science Program Office

  13. BER Organization - People Office of Biological & Environmental Research Anna Palmisano Associate Director Kathy Holmes, Administrative Specialist Associate Director Office Staff Michael Riches,Sr. Technical Advisor David Thomassen, Chief Scientist Biological Systems Science Division Sharlene Weatherwax, Director Climate and Environmental Sciences Division Wanda Ferrell, Acting Director Kirin Alapaty Jeff Amthor Todd Anderson Anjuli Bamzai Paul Bayer Karen Carlson-Brown Roger Dahlman Wanda Ferrell Mike Kuperberg Kim Laing David Lesmes Rick Petty Leslie Runion Robert Vallario Ashley Williamson Dean Cole Joanne Corcoran Dan Drell Patrick Glynn Joseph Graber Susan Gregurick Roland Hirsch John Houghton Terry Jones Arthur Katz Peter Kirchner (IPA) Noelle Metting Prem Srivastava Marvin Stodolsky Michael Teresinski Elizabeth White 13

  14. Biological and Environmental Research BER Mission Priorities: Strategic Planning --10 year horizons • Develop biofuels as a major secure national energy resource (in progress, Joe Graber lead) • Understand relationships between climate change and Earth’s ecosystems, and assess options for carbon sequestration (completed, on web site) • Predict fate and transport of subsurface contaminants (update in progress, David Lesmes lead) • Develop new tools to explore the interface of biological and physical sciences (in progress, Dean Cole and Libby White, co-leads)

  15. BERAC: Creating a Long Term Vision for BER Science • Need to look at 20 year horizons to position BER for future opportunities and challenges. • Learn from the “Basic Research Needs” model led by Pat Dehmer in BES • BESAC report identified basic research directions required for major technological changes in energy production and use • Described a vision for a new era of science • Provide inspiration for a series of 10 focused workshops that galvanized the scientific community • Allowed identification of important recurring themes and science grand challenges

  16. Biological and Environmental Research Biological Systems Science Division: Updates

  17. Biological and Environmental Research Biological Systems Science Division: Fall Workshops • National Synchrotron Light Source II (NSLS-II) Imaging and Spectroscopy Workshop (POC: Roland Hirsch) • September 12, Washington, D.C. • Goal: To explore NSLS II imaging and spectroscopy applications for biological science • Report on web site • Joint DOE-USDA Workshop on Sustainability of Biofuels: State of the Science and Future Directions (POC: John Houghton, Libby White) • October 28-29 in Bethesda, MD • Goal: Assess the current state of the science and identify future research, opportunities for partnering • Report being finalized

  18. Biological and Environmental Research Biological Systems Science Division: Fall Workshops • Workshop on New Frontiers of Science in Radiochemistry and Instrumentation for Radionuclide Imaging (POC: Prem Srivastava) • November 4-5, Bethesda, MD • Goal: To discuss opportunities for research relevant to DOE’s missions in biology and environmental sciences • Report is posted on BER website • Workshop on “Low Dose Epidemiology – What Can It Tell Us?” (POC: Noelle Metting) • December 10-11, Washington D.C. • Goal: To discuss integrating new molecular/ biological knowledge and technologies into epidemiologic studies

  19. Biological and Environmental Research Biological Systems Science Division • Genomics: GTL PI Meeting (POCs: Sharlene Weatherwax and Joe Graber) • February 8-11, 2009, North Bethesda, MD • Over 500 attendees! Guest star appearances! • Plenary sessions will include presentations by the DOE Bioenergy Research Centers • Breakout sessions included Biohydrogen, Annotation, Multiscale Computing, ELSI and Sustainability, and the USDA-DOE Plant Feedstock Genomics for Bioenergy Awardee Workshop 2009

  20. Biological and Environmental Research Biological Systems Science Division: Reviews • Bioenergy Research Center Reviews (POC: Sharlene Weatherwax) • Year-end, on-site reviews of science and management by a team of experts • Plant sciences, microbiology, enabling technologies, computation and informatics, management, ES&H • Great Lakes Bioenergy Research Center: Sept 23-24, Madison, WI • Joint BioEnergy Institute: Sept 28-30, Emeryville, CA • BioEnergy Science Center: October 14-15, Oak Ridge, TN (Martin Keller is today’s science speaker)

  21. Biological and Environmental Research Biological Systems Science Division: Reviews Triennial On-Site Review of Joint Genome Institute (JGI) (POC: Dan Drell) • December 3-5 in Walnut Creek, CA • Team of experts evaluated science, operations, informatics and management • Criteria include scientific productivity and impact, quality of user program, and value added from JGI informatics and data analysis activities • Report being prepared • JGI Strategic Planning workshop held August 2008. Report and discussion at BERAC February 19, 20088.

  22. Biological and Environmental Research DOE JGI User Meeting • 4th Annual User Meeting, March 25-27, 2009 • Marriott Hotel in Walnut Creek, California • For users, collaborators, prospective users. • Sessions: • Improving Biomass, its Degradation, and Biofuels • Genome Evolution and Adaptation • New Sequencing Technologies and Functional Genomics • Synthetic Biology • Workshops: • JGI 101 • IMG (Integrated Microbial Genomes) Workshop • Eukaryotic Annotation

  23. Biological and Environmental Research Climate and Environmental Sciences Division: Updates

  24. Biological and Environmental Research Climate and Environmental Sciences Division: Fall Workshops Atmospheric Radiation Measurement (ARM) Airborne Measurements Workshop (POC: Rick Petty) • October 14-16, Champaign, IL • Goal: To advance instrument development for and airborne measurements of atmospheric, climate-related processes ARM Climate Research Facility (ACRF) Workshop (POC: Wanda Ferrell) • October 21-22, Reston, VA • Goal: To ensure that ACRF has the strategy and tools to meet the science next for the next ten years.

  25. Biological and Environmental Research Climate and Environmental Sciences Division: Fall Workshops • Workshop on Extreme scale Computing for Climate Change Science (POC: Anjuli Bamzai-BER and Lali Chatterjee-Office of Advanced Scientific Computing Research - ASCR) • November 6-7, Washington, D.C. Dr. Warren Washington was the lead organize, at Dr. Orbach’s request. • Goal: Joint BER/ASCR activity to explore the potential applications of extreme-scale computing research to enable discovery in climate change science.

  26. Office of Science Environmental Molecular Sciences Lab – User Facility • EMSL Strategic Plan – August 2008. Opportunities where advances in environmental molecular sciences and both current and new tools that enable these advances can have a significant impact. • Science & operations peer review September 2008 • world class science • strong strategic planning & good implementation • strong leadership & vision • good user communication • need to increase user support time

  27. Biological and Environmental Research Scientific Focus Areas (SFAs) for Labs: Implementing A New Management Approach • SFA’s encourage integrative, collaborative research programs, in support of DOE mission. • SFA’s take advantage of unique National Laboratory strengths in interdisciplinary, team-oriented, mission relevant research. • The SFA’s will enhance dialogue between National Lab science managers and BER program managers. • Best management practices developed and shared with the National Labs; follow up conference calls. • Anticipate that new funds will be openly competed among universities and labs, except in cases of targeted needs. • BER continues to encourage Lab-University collaborations

  28. Office of Science Partnerships with Office of Advanced Scientific Computing Research Scientific Discovery through Advanced Computing (SciDAC ): collaborative projects with the Office of Advanced Scientific Computing Research to leverage the nation’s intellectual investment in computational science for scientific discovery • Climate Change Research - How will the Earth's climate respond to physical, chemical, and biological changes produced by global alterations of the atmosphere, ocean, and land? • Genomics: GTL - Developing new methods for modeling complex biological systems, including molecular complexes, metabolic and signaling pathways, individual cells and, ultimately, interacting organisms and ecosystems. • Environmental Remediation Sciences - Developing more advanced models for better understanding the movement of subsurface contamination.

  29. Office of Science Partnerships with Other Federal Agencies BER partners with other Federal agencies to leverage budgets and coordinate national scientific programs. Examples include: • DOE-USDA Genomics for Bioenergy Feedstocks • Strategic Environmental Research & Development Program (SERDP) • Protein Data Bank (NSF, NIH) • Fogarty Center International Collaborative Biodiversity Groups (ICBG) • Low Dose Program partners with NASA’s Human Research Program (HRP) Space Radiation Research Project • Climate agencies in Climate Change Science Program

  30. Biological and Environmental Research Strategic Partnerships: New and Ongoing Activities • NSF Geosciences – climate research • NIH National Center for Research Resources (NCRR) -- structural biology, proteomics • Memoranda of Understanding signed: • With NIH and NSF on renewed support for the Protein Data Bank • With USDA’s Forest Service to support collaborative activities with the DOE Bioenergy Research Centers • And more…..

  31. Biological and Environmental Research BERAC Activities: Looking ahead…. • Long Term Vision • JGI Strategic Planning • Interagency Partners • Dr. Tim Killeen (NSF) Today! • Dr. Barbara Alving (NIH National Center for Research Resources) • DOE Office of Advanced Scientific Computing Research

  32. Biological and Environmental Research Thank you!

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