National Ecological Observatory Network (NEON)
c/o American Institute of Biological Sciences
1444 I St. NW, Suite 200
Washington, DC 20005
Contact: Dan Johnson, 202/628-1500 x215
fax: 202/628-1509; djohnson@aibs.org

October 12, 2006

NEON Exhibits at Student Technical Conference

Staffers from the National Ecological Observatory Network (NEON) attended the 16th Annual Science and Engineering Alliance Student Technical Conference, 4-7 October 2006, in Gaithersburg, Maryland.

Dan Johnson (NEON Public Information Representative) and Cheryl Solomon (Science Associate) met students, representatives of Federal agencies, and engineering/technical faculty from attending universities at the NEON exhibit. Elizabeth Blood, NSF Program Director for NEON, briefed SEA attendees at several sessions on October 6.

The Science and Engineering Alliance, Inc. (SEA) was founded in 1990 as a nonprofit consortia. The SEA serves four state-supported Historically Black Colleges and Universities (Alabama A&M University, Jackson State University, Southern University and A&M College, and Prairie View A&M University) and Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory. It focuses on ensuring a supply of quality minority scientists to meet the development and research needs of the public and private sectors.

The National Ecological Observatory Network is a continental-scale research platform designed to gather long-term data relevant to a range of major US environmental challenges. The Observatory will focus on the impacts of climate change, land-use change, and invasives on ecology.

NEON will develop an open data policy and make its ecological data available to researchers and educational users in near-real time via user-friendly portals. Through a variety of education initiatives, NEON will translate scientific data into meaningful information that citizens can understand and use.

NEON education will also support the professional development opportunities that scientists and educators need to become effective researchers and teachers. These efforts include broadening participation in the sciences, an emphasizing undergraduate access to NEON resources, and creating educational and training opportunities for a variety of geographically underserved populations.