the hub - btiscience.org

From the Hot Seat by David Stern

May 2010 Volume 12, Issue 3 The Hub

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The May 12th Board meeting It’s pretty hard to work at BTI and not be aware when the Board of Directors is meeting. Preparations involve many BTI staff, and faculty, students and postdocs are included in vari-ous meetings and events. It’s a great opportunity to showcase the accomplishments and vision of the institute, as well as conduct various fiduciary duties related to BTI’s finances and opera-tions. We welcomed three new board members this year: Sabeeha Merchant, Professor of Bio-chemistry at UCLA; Kira Sheinerman, who has both a Ph.D. in molecular biology and an MBA, and is a Managing Director at the healthcare investment bank Rodman and Renshaw; and Andy Bass, newly appointed as Associate Provost for Research at Cornell University. There can be no doubt that the past year has been eventful. We completed a Strategic Plan, dealt with a financial crisis and incipient rebound, reorganized management, and resolved liti-gation. Through this, our scientists have continued their high productivity and associated suc-cess in obtaining research funding. As one measure of funding, we have about three years of grant dollars “in the bank”, ensuring the vitality of the research enterprise well into the future. As is the case for most boards, the hard work is done in committees which meet, in our case, the day before the board meeting. Our committees include Research Oversight, Audit, Finance, External Relations and Development, and Investment. The ROC spent all day interacting with faculty, students and postdocs, interspersed with two informative discussions with myself and Eric Richards. We heard that most things were working very well, although as always there is room for improvements. Eric and I will be following up on those items. I don’t anticipate any major new initiatives as a result of the ROC discussions, except that the ROC is always inter-ested in our plans for future faculty hiring - something that will be under discussion in the coming months. The Audit Committee reported that we had a “clean” audit. Thanks go to our Business Office staff who keep the paperwork in place and ensure appropriate practices at BTI. The Finance Committee saw that we are adhering to our budget, and enjoying record research revenues. The Investment Committee was informed that our endowment has recovered to the level last seen in September, 2008, which is about $92M. This means that by one measure, we have erased the trough of the financial crisis, even if the endowment is significantly below its peak value of around $110M. Finally, the ERD Committee learned that both our staff and Board have been increasingly generous in terms of donating to BTI over the past several years. We thank all of you who have recognized BTI in this special way. The ERD Committee also spent considerable time discussing our technology transfer potential and practices. This reflects a major goal of our Strategic Plan and is also an area of significant expertise on the Board. If there was a take-home message from the board meeting, it was that they recognized the ex-traordinary strides that BTI has made in the past several years, particularly in the past year. They are dazzled by our science, but also impressed by the new structure that we have built to support our science. They are aware that all BTI staff support the Strategic Plan, and they are very eager to track our progress on its broader objectives including increasing BTI’s visibility, improving its internal and external communications, facilitating high-risk and innovative sci-ence, and optimizing the career experiences of its employees. We put a few copies of the com-plete Strategic Plan on the table and they were quickly snapped up. This Board is really behind you.

New Hires 2

Welcomes 2-3

WebSite MakeOver 3

Anniversaries 3

Departing Employees

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IT Updates 4

Operations Updates

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Summer Interns 5

Stockroom Info 6

Stern— ASPB Fellow

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PGS Updates 7

Healthcare & You 6

Grants & Awards 8

Bus. Office Updates 8

BTI and Your Will 9

Management Team 9

Lab Services 10

BTI / TC3 Partnership

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Fun Committee 11

Education Programs for Science Teachers

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In This Issue...

Sophia Darling joined BTI on April 26th as our CFO. She comes to BTI with previous ex-perience as a CFO at a printing manufacturer and in the field of public accounting. Sophia is pleased to have joined the BTI team and looks forward to learning and growing at the Insti-tute. Aside from work, she and her husband Nick enjoy working on their farm and acclimating their two young boys to “farm” life. She also loves running and participates in various organ-ized running / charity events.

You’ll find Sophia in the Business Office. Please stop by and introduce yourself.

Welcome to BTI’s Chief Financial Officer—Sophia Darling


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Welcome New Hires!

BTI Core Values

Integrity

Excellence

Collaboration

Mutual Respect

Innovation

Several folks would like to give kudos to Don Slocum for his handling of the Cold Room #3 failure, which occurred over a weekend. He was able to save research material from many labs by playing ”musical cold rooms” to find space for everything.

Kudos go to Kerry Curtiss for identifying an infected common computer which allowed IT staff to clean it of viruses quickly.

Jules Sharwood sends out several thank you’s: ◊ to the scientists, postdocs, technicians and grad students who met with Research Over-

sight Committee during their visit on May 10. ◊ to Donna Claes and Eric Richards for helping me organize the Research Oversight Com-

mittee meeting and associated documents. Phew what a task. ◊ to Joanne Carruthers, Shirley Geddes and Liz Estabrook for assisting with the grant sup-

port information for the ROC Annual Report – on a short time frame they got it done! ◊ to Mary Westlake and David Stern for arranging the purchase of a new fridge in the

admin storage area that is set up in such an ideal location for easy use and access.

David Stern thanks many involved in recent Board meetings: I want to thank our faculty, postdocs and students for taking the time to meet with the Re-search Oversight Committee, and many members of our support staff for their indispensable help in preparing for the meeting. These thanks include, but are not limited to Don Waddell, Joanne Carruthers and Shirley Geddes in the Business Office; Jules Sharwood, Mary West-lake, Lorraine Johnson, and Tiffany Fleming. Donna Claes is the interface between the board members and BTI and does virtually all of the organizational work. I also want to express my deepest appreciation to Jane Calder, Eric Richards, Sophia Darling and Joan Curtiss, all of whom acquitted themselves admirably in their first meetings in the capacity of Board Offi-cers.

KUDOS and Thank You’s

Jander Lab Postdoc Lisa Meihls Harrison Lab Research Assistant I-Chun Clark Martin Lab Postdoc Patrick Boyle Mueller Lab Bioinformatic Analyst Jonathan Leto Schroeder Lab Student Workers: Ryan Donohue An Ye Huang BTI Administrative Chief Financial Office Sophia Darling HR Asst/Admin Asst Tiffany Kamery


BTI Web Site Gets a Face Lift

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Employee Anniversaries

20 Years Gary Blissard ....... April 11 Years Donna Claes ......... May 10 Years Kevin Ahern......... April 6 Years Jeffrey Heichel ..... May 3 Years Greg Inzinna ........ April Po-Pu (Eric) Liu ... April Jin Sun ................... April Roslyn Noar ......... May 2 Years Jane Calder ........... April Carmen Catala ..... April Mamta Srivastava April Adewale Adio ...... April Klaus Apel ............ April Chanhong Kim .... April Pinghua Li ............ May Jingwei Zhang ..... May Aureliano Bombarely Gomez .............. May Robert Buels ......... May Thomas Fisher- York .................. May Joseph Gosselin ... May Naama Menda ..... May Anuradha Pujar ... May Isaak Tecle ............ May 1 Year Yuan Wang .......... April Miaoying Tian ..... April Johannes Matthieu ......... April Mingyun Huang .. May Nicholas Kaczmar ............................... May

Over the past several months the BTI Web Committee, (comprised of Camilo Rosero, Tiffany Fleming, Lorraine Johnson, Jules Sharwood, and Joan Curtiss) has been working on updates and enhancements to the BTI web site. Our goal was to enhance the end-user’s experience by improving navigation and view-ability while also adding some new features. We encourage you to take a look and send feedback to [email protected]. We have added an array of updates to the web site that are designed to aid in navigabil-ity and searching as-well as a fresh coat of paint to give our digital presence a slick mod-ern look. Some of the features we have added include: ◊ Use of Tabs to help in the organization as well as the navigation of content in the

web site.. (View a scientist’s page for an example.)

◊ Dynamic searching utilizing a combination of Google's Search Engine and our own Search Engine.

◊ "Breadcrumbs Navigation" to help track where you are in the web site.

◊ "Mega Drop Down Styling" for our drop down menu.

◊ Changes to design elements that still adhere to our brand and identity. There are still a few kinks to be worked out but we welcome your feedback. Special thanks goes to Camilo Rosero for transforming ideas into a final product!

Welcome Tiffany Kamery, HR Assistant and Admin. Assistant

Tiffany Kamery joined BTI on April 28th 2010 as HR Assistant and Administrative Assistant. She is handling the visa paperwork, new hire orientations and benefit enrollments as well as administrative support for HR. She also supports: Carmen Catala, Lukas Mueller, and Sorina Popescu. Tiffany recently moved to Ithaca from Syracuse NY, and is enjoying the beautiful sights that our community has to offer. She is a dog lover and enjoys playing fetch with her Pit Bull ter-rier. Also, she is hoping to add a puppy to her household by the end of the summer. Please stop in to the Business Office – Room 100 — and say hello. You will find Tiffany in the cubicle near Shirley Geddes and Liz Estabrook.


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Departing Employees

Stephanie Topp Research Assistant Harrision Lab Zhipan Yang Visiting Scholar Apel Lab Wenquan Wang Visiting Scientist Giovannoni Lab Aimee Clark Research Assistant Stern Lab

IT Support Updates

Do you have a new employee, visitor, grad. student starting work soon? Please let us know in advance of their arrival if possible. This helps us be more prepared and have appro-priate materials on hand.

IT New Employee Orientation: Tuesdays, 11:00am Includes a brief overview of services and a IT Support CD.

BTI Building Control Project: BTI has started a project to upgrade the computer control of our building mechanical systems. The new controls are from Logical Control Solutions of Rochester and use an Automated Logic Control system. This will replace our 19 year old Metasys (Johnson Control) system and will provide more BTI control with graphics and trending for troubleshooting, fine tuning, and en-ergy savings. New communication wires have been installed and the new network is in use. The controller for AC-3 (Auditorium) has been converted to the new system. The rest of the systems will be changed out over the next couple of weeks. At this time we still don’t expect a lot of downtime on any system. Any questions, please call the Mechanical Shop 4-1201, Don ( ds60 ) 220-4361, Dave ( dm46 ) 220-4358.

Automatic External Defibrillator (AED) available at BTI: AED Location: Fire cabinet between the restrooms near the auditorium Nine BTI employees received CPR and AED certification in February and March. Because of this strong interest, an AED (automatic external defibrillator) has been installed in the fire extin-guisher cabinet between the first floor restrooms by the Auditorium. Please note that if the cabi-net door is opened an alarm will ring at Cornell Dispatch and emergency responders will be dispatched to BTI. The AED is programmed to tell rescuers exactly what to do using voice and visual prompts. Rescuers attach adhesive electrode pads to the person's chest. Through these electrodes, the AED is designed to automatically analyze the electrical activity of the heart to determine if a "shockable" rhythm is present. An AED is so easy to use, even untrained school children can operate one quickly and correctly. With voice prompts and pictures, the AED guides rescuers through the resuscitation process, advising when to give CPR. If the AED determines the person's heart needs a shock, it tells rescuers to stand back so a shock can be safely given through the adhesive electrode pads af-fixed to the person's chest. (Note: Some AED models will tell the user to push a button to shock, and others will provide it automatically after giving rescuers an "all clear" warning.) The delivery of an electrical shock to a heart experiencing sudden cardiac arrest (SCA) briefly stops all electrical activity in the heart. This brief break from the previous electrical chaos can be enough for the heart to restart with a normal rhythm. Not everyone can be saved from SCA, even with defibrillation. But early defibrillation, espe-cially when delivered within three to five minutes of a person's collapse from SCA, does pro-vide the best chance for survival. It's that simple. (from http://www.physio-control.com/learning/about-aed/how-does-aed-work.aspx)

Operations Updates


The 2010 Plant Genome Research Program Summer Interns are coming to BTI

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Remember… timesheets are due every other Mon-day by 5pm. Winners of recent bi-weekly raffles — selected from timesheets submitted on time—include: 2/20-3/5 Richard Pattison 3/6-3/19 Jeon Hong 3/20-4/2 Kishor Bhattarai 4/3-4/16 Je Gun Joung 4/17-4/30 Lesley Middleton

Timesheet Reminder...

Twenty-five students from across the country have been selected to participate in plant ge-nome research and training in labs at BTI, Cornell, and the USDA. The program begins June 7, 2010 and concludes August 13, 2010. We are looking forward to fun and productive summer in the labs. Please welcome the students to BTI when they arrive.

Undergraduate Interns

High School Interns Four high school students (all juniors) will intern this summer as well.

Hannah De Jong, Jander Lab James Eaglesham, Harrison Lab Zoe Huston, Stern Lab, Amber Hotto, mentor

Intern College / University Lab Mentor Amare Assefa Truman State University,

Missouri Klessig Caroline von Dahl

Brandi Cannon Sam Houston State Univer-sity, Texas

Scanlon John Woodward

Maria Eck Towson University, Maryland Apel Marco Straus

Josquin Daron international student, France Jander

Robert Fuentes Del Mar College, California Brutnell Lin Wang

Joseph Groom Vanderbuilt University, Tennessee

Hua Jian Hua

Michael Greene University of Minnesota, Twin Cities

Doyle Sue Sherman-Boyles

Arturo Holmes Mercer University, Georgia Lee Lab Jing Zhou and Jose Sabastian

Colleen Lanza Colorado State University Hanson Stephane Bentolia

WenFang Li Cornell University Perry

Samantha Mainiero James Madison University, Virginia

Martin Andre Velázquez

Sandra Mardonovich University of California, Davis

Doyle Sue Sherman-Boyles

Kaitlin McNaily University of Georgia Kochian Lyza Maron

Monica Montano Rockhurst University, Kansas Stern Leila Feiz

Kevin Murphy Providence College, Rhode Island

Van Wijki Peter Lundquist

Anna Newman Carlton College, Minnesota Richards Molly Shook

Mischa Olson Iowa State University Pawloski Wojtek Pawloski

Jessica Orozco American River College, California

Giovannoni Nigel Gapper

Gabriela Tejada University of Puerto Rico Rose Greg Buda

Darrin Schultz Oberlin College, Ohio Harrison Kishor Bhattarai

Brittany Soltero University of California, Fresno

Giovannoni

BTI Mission

To advance and com-municate scientific knowledge in plant biology to improve agriculture, protect the environment and en-hance human health.


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Lab Coat Round-Up: If there are lab coats in your lab that are no longer being used, please return them to the Stockroom. They will be laundered and made available for others to use.

Federal Express and UPS Shipping Information: Outgoing FedEx Express packages should be ready for pickup by 3:30 pm. The shipping label must be completed with a valid project number to be charged. FedEx Express packages can be left on the desk adjacent to the load-ing dock. FedEx Ground packages should be brought to the Stockroom.

Shipping labels for outgo-ing UPS packages are pre-pared in the Stock-room. Pickup times for UPS are mid-morning and 3:00pm.

Health Care Reform and You

On March 23, 2010, the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act was passed. There will be significant changes to health insurance in the future, and it can be a daunting task to under-stand all of the new requirements. Below is a list of some of the changes that may affect you. Flex Spending Accounts: ◊ Effective January 1, 2011—non-prescribed over-the-counter medication will no longer be

reimbursed through your FSA account. ◊ Effective January 1, 2013 – FSA annual limit will be $2,500 (currently $4,000). Reporting: ◊ Effective 2011—The value of each employee’s health insurance coverage will be reported

on their W-2. This will not be taxable income, but will be reported to the IRS. Benefit Changes: ◊ Effective 2011 or 2014 -- Dependent children may receive coverage up to age 26, regard-

less of student or marital status. Dependents remain on the parent’s plan, and the pre-mium is pre-tax. For children who are currently enrolled in the plan and are going to age out, this is effective immediately. Dependents that are not currently on the plan, but be-come eligible because of the new regulations will need to wait until the law takes effect. (Currently, unmarried students up to age 25, or dependents up to age 19 may receive cov-erage on their parent’s pre-tax policy. Dependents up to age 29 may be covered, but with their own, post-tax, policy.)

◊ Effective Sept. 23, 2010—No lifetime limits on benefits (same as current), no annual

maximum benefits (same as current), cannot limit pre-existing conditions coverage for children under age 19 (currently, all pre-existing conditions are covered for all insured. This will continue).

New Fees & Taxes ◊ Effective July, 2010 – a 10% tax on indoor tanning salon services.

◊ Effective 2013 – a 3.8% Medicare tax on net investment income for those with an income over $200,000 ($250,000 for joint filers).

◊ Effective 2013—a 0.9% Medicare tax applied to earned income in excess of $200,000 ($250,000 for joint filers).

◊ Effective 2013—the threshold for itemizing deductions for medical expenses increases to 10% of annual gross income (currently 7.5%).

There are many other changes to health care law that will take effect over the next few years. These changes should have little effect on you, assuming that you remain employed at BTI, with BTI insurance. If you have any questions about the health care reform, please contact Jane Calder at [email protected].

Stockroom Info...


Stern Awarded Fellow of ASPB

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Search the BTI Library Catalog from your com-puter. You can access and search here: BTI Library Catalog REMINDER: Resource Center journals must be read while you are in the Resource Center. (Once a journal leaves, it often will not find its way back.) Spe-cial circumstances will be considered. Contact Berta (bgg2) or Elaine (eev1).

Resource Center ...

David Stern Awarded Fellow of the American Society of Plant Biologists. David Stern has been awarded the Fellow of the American Society of Plant Biologists (ASPB) and will be formally recognized at the annual ASPB awards ceremony in Montreal, July 31. Established in 2007, the award is granted to current ASPB members in recognition of direct service to the Society and distinguished and long-term contributions to plant biology. David has served ASPB as a coeditor of The Plant Cell from 1994 to 2003. He also served on the ad hoc Publications Visions Subcommittee in 1998 and the ad hoc Strategic Planning Committee in 2005. He currently serves on the Charles Albert Shull Award Committee. Dr. Stern has been a member of ASPB since 1989 and President of BTI since 2004. (excerpt from BTI Press Release)

Poster Season

PGS Fest Seminar Series: Our next PGS fest seminar will be given by Dr. Jian min Zhou from the National Institute of Biological Sciences, Beijing on May 24th, with a talk entitled “Pseudomonas syringae effector proteins reveal regulatory mechanisms of plant immunity”. In September, PGS fests will con-tinue with Eric Alani from the Cornell Department of Molecular Biology and Genetics who will talk about his research into eukaryotic mismatch repair systems to prevent replication errors and modulate genetic recombination. PGS Happy Hour: We will be hosting a PGS Happy Hour on June 10th at 4pm behind the greenhouses. This new event is an effort to foster internal communication and general relaxation, with an additional purpose of introducing new students, such as the summer REU interns. Career Day: Career Day will be on June 25th this year, with guest speakers Jay Farmer from Novomer, Kathleen Mulliniux from the BTI board of directors, Tom Bollenboch, former BTI research associate, and Sarah Davidson who is a science writer. This event is held to illustrate the va-riety of science careers available, aside from the commonly taken path of university professor. BTI Retreat: To round out the summer, the PGS will be holding the annual BTI retreat on August 19th. This is a chance to learn about, and present, the high-quality research that graduate students and postdocs are undertaking at BTI through a poster session, following two short seminars. One seminar will be given by Susan McCouch, professor of Plant Breeding and Genetics and of Plant Biology at Cornell University, with the second speaker TBA. Distinguished Lecturer: Dr. Ralph Bock from the Max Planck Institute of Molecular Plant Physiology will be coming to BTI to present his research into plant organelles on November 10th. Professional Development Series: Dr. Jocylen Rose from the Cornell Department of Plant Biology will come to talk about suc-cessful grant writing in the fall.

Post Graduate Society Updates

Planning to present a poster at an upcoming conference? ◊ Check the availability of

the poster printer. ◊ Sign up for a time slot

for printing and indicate whether you are using mac or pc (Graphics Room of Resource Cen-ter)

◊ Be sure to review in-structions for poster setup and printing BE-FORE you begin.


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Do you have the newest version of MS Office in-stalled on your machine?.

ou may install Office 2008 (mac) or Office 2007 (pc) on your lab / office com-puter at no cost. If you use a personal machine for work-related purposes only, you may also use Office at no cost. If you use a personal machine and will use Office for both work and personal use, you can purchase a “home-use” license at the lost cost of $10.

Recently Approved Grants

Jim Giovannoni Functional Genomics of Tomato Fruit Quality: Bridging the Gap between QTLs and Genes NSF/University of Florida 3 years $1,091,183.00 2/15/2010 Tiffany Fleming Teaching materials and Training Graham Foundation 1 year $14,600.00 1/1/2010 Frank Schroeder Small Molecule Signaling in Caenorhabdi-tis Elegans HHS/NIAID 4 years $1,074,189.00 5/1/2010

Johannes Mathieu/Greg Martin Development of a novel autofluorescent tag to monitor type three effortor delivery in vivo Human Frontier Science Program 3 years $160,980.00 5/1/2010 Lukas Mueller Translating Solanaceae Sequence Diversity and Trait Variation into Applied Outcomes Through Integrative Research, Education and Extension USDA/Michigan State 3 years $187,665.46 9/1/2009

BTI Travel: Per Diem Allowance means no receipts for meals and incidental expenses. For those travelers who don’t like to keep receipts, BTI is allowing per diem for meals.

What is per diem? Per diem is the allowance for meals and incidental expenses. The U.S. General Services Ad-ministration (GSA) establishes per diem rates for destinations within the continental United States (CONUS). The U.S. State Department establishes the foreign rates (for example, Russia, Aruba, Bahamas, Europe, etc.). The U.S. Department of Defense (DOD) establishes non-foreign rates such as Alaska, Hawaii, Puerto Rico, and Guam. These rates provide a daily amount for meals while on official business travel, excluding meals paid by your conference or host. For more information please visit the business office website.

How do I find the per diem rate for (city/county, state)? Please visit www.gsa.gov/perdiem to find the rates. Click on the state you need to view that state's rates. Even though some cities are listed for your lookup convenience, not all cities can or will be listed, so look for the county where you will be staying. To look up the county, visit www.naco.org. If the city or county you are looking for is not listed on the GSA per diem rate page, then the standard rate of $46 for meals applies.

BTI 403(b) Retirement Plan: (From Alesco Advisors ) After the extreme market volatility in 2008 and 2009, the first quarter of 2010 was comfortably uneventful by comparison. The funds in the Boyce Thompson 403(b) Plan generally performed well relative to their benchmarks. In addition, all of the funds in the plan continue to produce

Business Office Updates

Office 2008 and

Office 2007

New G

rants


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Are you using the most recent versions of Se-quencher -- LaserGene/DNA Star – KeyServer software? If your lab subscribes to software from the Core Laboratories Center (previously Bio Resource Center) your software may need to be upgraded. Newer versions of com-monly used software are available for Sequencher, LaserGene/DNA Star, the KeyServer, Photoshop and more. You can borrow the installer CD or ask us to help install this software.

Core Laboratories Center

Cornell Calendar Training

The BTI management team (MT), comprised of Brian Bell, Jane Calder, Joanne Carruthers, Donna Claes, Joan Curtiss, Lorraine Johnson, Eric Richards, and Don Waddell, and our new-est member Sophia Darling, meet the first and third Tuesday of the month to discuss issues related to day to day operation of the Institute. Below is a brief overview of the topics that have been discussed: Confidentiality Agreement – This policy was reviewed by the MT and taken to the senior leadership group and approved. It has since by implemented by the Human Resources depart-ment.

Strategic Plan — Elaine Van Etten has provided the Management Team with an outline, time table, and objectives for the Organizational Alignment Key Response Area (KRA), known as KRA 1. The MT is in the process of reviewing these documents and will be working on a plan to achieve the goals and objectives outlined in the KRA.

Policies/procedures — Several policies and procedures are being developed and are under review. ◊ Time sheets: the Business Office and Human Resources are looking at systems that would

create electronic time cards. ◊ Per diem travel policy: The business office is working on simplifying the policy and

forms for the per diem travel policy. An email will be sent to staff as soon when this pol-icy is finalized.

Sale/Disposal of property — The mechanical shop is in the process of cleaning out the old basement storeroom. A silent auction may be held to dispose of any old chairs, desks, cabi-nets, etc. that are no longer needed by the institute (open to BTI staff only).

Performance Management — It’s important that we have a consistent, fair way of evaluating all employees. To help accomplish this, the HR department is reviewing and updating all job descriptions.

Gifts - Funds have been received to put up a sign/computer in the entryway of BTI that would display information such as the staff directory. Discussions are underway as to the cost and the type of sign that should be purchased.

Remember BTI in Your Will

The average age of the BTI staff is lower than the general population, so thinking about having a will is probably not uppermost in people’s minds. But having a written will is especially im-portant if you have any assets you want to pass into the right hands. Without a legal will your assets will be distributed according a formula determined by State of New York law. If that is in conflict with your wishes, you should consult an attorney who will help you write a will that is in accordance with where you want your assets to go. Some of the largest gifts BTI has received over the years have been through bequests by indi-viduals. If you want to make a significant impact that you otherwise wouldn’t be able to make through current annual giving, consider a bequest to BTI. A bequest can be designed accord-ing to your interest and can be a lasting legacy to your time at BTI. Please contact Lorraine Johnson (lj25) for more info.

Management Team Action Items

REGISTER NOW Microsoft Entourage 2008 Calendaring http://cornell.veplan.net/Education/course.aspx?sched=1&c=7731 Microsoft Outlook 2007 Calendaring http://cornell.veplan.net/Education/course.aspx?sched=1&c=7726


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For general supply ques-tions and initial trouble-shooting, please contact the following persons for assis-tance with floor printers: 1st Floor Mary Westlake 2nd Floor IT Support Resource Center IT Support 3rd Floor Jules Sharwood 4th Floor Jules Sharwood Basement Dick Staples / IT Support If the primary support per-son is not available please contact [email protected] . If you notice that the printer is jamming fre-quently or producing poor print jobs, please let the primary support person know.

Lab Services

On May 3rd, the Laboratory Services department transitioned to a new media preparation subscription program. Some of the important changes include:

-Affordability: The monthly headcount charge has decreased by 23%, from $103 per head per month to $80 per head per month. Additionally, the criteria for tallying head-counts has been standardized.

-Simplicity: For the monthly subscription cost we are offering a core set of solutions that are commonly used in BTI labs. This list is available on the BTI intranet under the Facili-ties and Services Overview and has been emailed to all subscribing Project Leaders. In addition to the solutions, buffers, and media included on the list, we will also fill up to three carboys and refill Milli-Q water carboys in your lab.

-Customization: Any subscribing lab can add two items to the basic list so that the pro-gram can be tailored to better suit each lab's needs. We will still check subscribing labs' shelves/stocks three times per week. However, there will not be automatic restocking of every solution or medium currently on your shelf. We will only automatically restock those items that are on the basic list. If you would like additional items automatically restocked, please let Kaitlin know. Any item that is not on the basic list or part of a lab's custom items will have an extra charge associated with it that is based on material and labor costs. If there are items that you know you will want, please email Kaitlin and she will be happy to provide you with a price estimate.

-Inclusiveness: One of the most important changes that has taken place is that non-subscribing labs may order media, solutions, and buffers by the bottle from our media preparation service. As stated above, any itemized order will be charged based on mate-rial and labor costs. Please contact Kaitlin if you are interested in this option.

Kaitlin has also started a plate pouring service. The cost for most media is $15/liter and includes all materials except antibiotics. If you are interested in this service, please email her. As always, we in the Laboratory Services department look forward to providing quality services that help lab personnel every day. If you have any questions or comments, please contact Kaitlin Pidgeon at [email protected].

Lab Services Staff 254-5387

Kaitlin Pidgeon, Laboratory Services [email protected] Berta Gutierrez, Laboratory Services Asst, Media [email protected] Kate Krupnik, Laboratory Services Asst, [email protected] Dustin Scheve, Laboratory Services Asst, [email protected]

BTI Printers


BTI Partners With Tompkins Cortland Community College

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SAVE THE DATE:

BTI State of the Institute

Wednesday, June 2, 2010 9:00 am

BTI Auditorium

All members of the BTI Community are requested

to attend.

State of the Institute

BTI and Tompkins Cortland Community College (TC3) partnered this Spring semester to bring their Biology 101 course to BTI. While TC3 has several satellite locations, none could provide suitable space for a course involving a laboratory component. This joint effort also provides BTI postocs with the opportunity to teach at the college level. The weekly evening class was taught by Caroline von Dahl (Klessig Lab) and utilized the Kohut Teaching Lab for its lab component. Many thanks to Lorraine Johnson, Tiffany Fleming, Caroline von Dahl and SangOuk Lee (teaching lab assistant) in launching this successful effort. The class will be offered again in the Fall 2010 semester. Postdocs interested in teaching op-portunities should contact Lorraine Johnson (lj25).

Calendar Migration

Fun Committee Gets a Make-Over: BTI's Fun Committee recently discussed plans to better align the committee with the Insti-tute's mission. Phase One was the creation of a mission statement:

"To foster interaction and encourage scientific collaboration in a social environment." Phase Two is to update the committee with a new name which reflects the committee’s mis-sion statement and represents BTI’s social culture. ◊ This is where we need your help: We are asking everyone in the BTI community to con-

tribute suggestions for a new name, as well as ideas for future committee-sponsored events. To submit your ideas, simply click here

BTI Family Picnic on the Farm BTI’s Annual Summer Picnic will take place at Windsong Farm on July 23rd. All BTI em-ployees, retirees, student workers & REU students and family members are cordially invited to attend. This year’s picnic will feature: food, games, children's activities and more. When: Friday, July 23rd (late afternoon) Where: Windsong Farm; 5051 Tuttle Road; Burdett, NY 14818 We thank David for his generous and gracious offer to hold the summer picnic at his farm.

Fun Committee Updates

REMINDER:

Oracle Calendar Use Access Ends Friday, June 4, 2010 Exchange Calendar Use Available Monday, June 7th, 2010


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Major Areas of Focus:

Organizational Alignment

Research Portfolio

Operational Efficiency

Contingency Plans Action Plans have been developed which include anticipated timeframes. The entire document was reviewed by the BTI Board of Directors at their recent May meeting. The full document can be reviewed in the Resource Center, Room 200. To obtain a pdf version of the Plan, please send a re-quest to Donna Claes (dlm39).

Education Program for Science Teachers

The emphasis on strategic planning reaches across the Institute and has prompted many of us to look closely at the role of education and outreach in informing the public about recent advances in BTI science. As you can imagine, this is no small task particularly as plants, molecular biology and genomics are often perceived as too dry or too complicated by the general public. However our mission, with its emphasis on the application and relevance of BTI science to human health, agriculture and the environment speaks to public audiences and is drawing teachers from across New York state to our programs and workshops. Since January, over 45 middle and high science teachers have participated in BTI teacher workshops and over 400 students have participated in our plant-based labs. Four teach-ers from the 2009 Curriculum Development Workshop (CDW) completed the annual program and returned to BTI in April to present on how they incorporated plant biology topics into their classrooms. We know that teachers we able to successfully develop what they learned with BTI and (Brutnell, Jander, Popescu, Van Eck) Cornell scientists (Mayton, Smith, Pawloski) into curricula for Biology, Environmental Science AP biol-ogy and middle school life science classes. The 2010 CDW will take place at BTI July 18-23 and up to 10 teachers will be selected to participate. In addition, three teachers will be here as “Teacher Research Fellows” for up to three weeks. These teachers will be working in the teaching lab with postdocs and grad students to develop and test experimental protocol for screening “Brachy” mutants under a variety of environmental stress conditions. Their students will then conduct phe-notypic screens of hundreds of families and share their data with BTI scientists in the Brutnell lab. Our new model for outreach focuses on engaging teachers and students in authentic re-search partnerships with BTI and Cornell scientists. And a recent grant titled “Community Germination Studies for Bioenergy Feedstocks in New York State: An Outreach Module for Student-Driven Authentic Research in High School Science Classrooms” will allow us to do this kind of work throughout 2011. The collaborative grant was awarded to Tom Brutnell, and Tiffany Fleming at BTI and Alan Taylor and Hilary Mayton at Cornell. And thanks to the following folks for their involvement in Outreach! Maggie Cai Roslyn Noar Sarah Braun Stephanie Topp Diane Dunham Joyce Van Eck Amber Hotto Heidi Wang Kazuhiro Kukuhi

Strategic Plan

the hub - btiscience.org

Documents