Annual Meeting of Idaho, Nevada and New Mexico
Theme: Building Regional Collaborations

New Mexico, Nevada and Idaho, the three member states of the EPSCoR Tri-State Western Consortium, held their first joint annual meeting in Boise, Idaho, on March 30 – April 1, 2009. Idaho EPSCoR did a wonderful job of hosting the meeting and evaluations from attendees rated all aspects of the event as excellent. The meeting was well attended, with more than 100 research scientists, educators, and policy makers present for the 2 days (attendee list by institution). Idaho Lt. Gov. Brad Little reinforced the importance of NSF EPSCoR capacity-building support to the states in his keynote address, particularly discussing consortium research directed towards understanding future climate change and its impacts on vegetation and water resources. Denise Barnes and Arlene Garrison, from the NSF EPSCoR Program Office, were available for discussions and questions related to NSF future directions. Morning plenary sessions of the second day were devoted to best practices for broadening participation. Both days had afternoon concurrent sessions with presentations covering all components of the state EPSCoR programs. A full agenda is available online at the link below.

Goals for the first joint meeting were well met. A fundamental goal was for scientists from the 3 states to meet and get to know one another. Breakout sessions on science, policy and education topics permitted attendees to become familiar with the research and education programs being conducted in each state. The overarching goal for the meeting was to make concrete progress toward future collaborations and the final recap session showed many avenues for productive work.

The complete agenda is available: Building Regional Collaborations

Downloadable presentations by New Mexico presenters are shown below:

Overview of State EPSCoR Research Infrastructure Improvement Activities: Bill Michener – New Mexico EPSCoR Program Director

Observational Networks: Climate, hydrology and vegetation: in-situ data collection for improved model inputs and understanding climate change effects: John Wilson (NMT)

Social and Economic Research: Interdisciplinary research and modeling: integrating climate, hydrologic, economic and social models: Sam Fernald (NMSU)

Hydrology: Climate impacts on mountain sources of water: snow hydrology, water quality, and water resources: Cliff Dahm (UNM)

Climate Science: Regional climate modeling and coupling climate-hydrologic models: Joe Galewsky (UNM)

Examples of Effective Education and Outreach Programs that Emphasize Diversity: Marnie Carroll (Dine)

Integration of Research and Education: Programs to increase participation in STEM fields, K-12 materials development, and educational outreach programs: Katherine Mitchell(EPSCoR)/Mike Pullin (NMT)