While I was preparing some remarks to give to the Alaska Sea Grant Board of Advisors in November, I thought about how my own career in natural resources management, research and education intersects with the natural resources component of the UAF mission. I came up with a set of lessons I have learned that apply to our university's relationship to programs like Alaska Sea Grant:

• People and society need and depend upon natural resources to sustain life and to enable a high quality of life.
• Natural resources such as timber can be extracted and renewed through science-based management and stewardship.
• Informed natural resources managers and operators make better natural resources decisions, both for the benefit of the entity they represent and for the good of society. Information and knowledge reduce conflict.
• Certain natural resource-based industry sectors need university research, technology transfer and education.
• Research is an industry itself, attracting multi-million dollar grants and contracts that create jobs for scientists and technicians.
• Relationships among the university, private sector and government agencies are most effective when they are reciprocal, with students, faculty and staff drawing as much from the relationship as they contribute to it. Satisfied partners can be powerful allies for the university at the state and federal levels.
• Research is an engine for economic development, producing marketable technology and educating tomorrow's workforce.

Public research universities like UAF provide both a private good--to the individual student and to the specific collaborating firm, and a public good--a more informed citizenry and a more vibrant economy. In return, our industry and government sponsors can serve us in many ways, including sponsoring research, funding our programs and hiring our graduates.

These lessons have real implications for UAF, our partners and Alaska. This university fully embraces the notion of an "engagement," which entails working in reciprocal research, and teaching and outreach partnerships with business, industry, communities and government. I am committed to sustaining UAF's excellence in the natural resource arena. An engaged UAF addresses critical issues, including management of natural resources, to enable a better tomorrow for all Alaskans.

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Office of Electronic Miniaturization staff produced the first microelectronic devices created entirely in the UAF clean room. The devices are now undergoing a rigorous set of electrical, reliability and lifespan tests.

The College of Rural Alaska's Interior-Aleutians Campus was awarded a second $2.5 million five-year grant from the U.S. Department of Education to provide student services, and develop and improve academic programs for rural Alaska villages. I-AC has the largest service area of any College of Rural Alaska campus, serving 57 communities scattered over 200,000 square miles.

Machinists from the Geophysical Institute built a 1,200-pound coil system that will be used to calibrate and test equipment at Colorado's Boulder Magnetic Observatory, which monitors disturbances in the Earth's magnetic field. The data collected will be used by scientists around the globe.

Alvin Amason, College of Liberal Arts and Jerah Chadwick, Aleutians Pribilof Center, were among 18 Alaska artists selected as the first recipients of the Rasmuson Foundation's new individual artist awards.

UAF researchers were integral to development of the Arctic Climate Impact Assessment, considered by some to be the most thorough and rigorous review of arctic climate change science ever conducted.

The UAF chapter of the American Indian Science and Engineering Society received the 2004 Stelvio J. Zanin Distinguished Chapter Award at the 26th annual AISES national conference.

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Chief Terry Vrabec of the UAF Police Department will represent Alaska and UAF as one of the runners carrying the torch and assisting athletes in Japan in preparation for the opening ceremonies of the 2005 Special Olympics World Winter Games in Nagano this February.

The new Nanook women's swim program is moving along with selection of UAF alumnus and long time Alaskan Scott Lemley as head coach to lead the UAF team when it begins competition next fall.

The 2005 Science for Alaska lecture series is underway through Feb. 22. Scientists from UAF, UAA, UAS and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service will share their research with the public in free lectures in Fairbanks, Juneau and Anchorage. The annual series is coordinated by the Geophysical Institute and sponsored by the University of Alaska Foundation.

A $95,000 gift from Flint Hills Resources Alaska endowed a scholarship and will support undergraduate research programs and establish a tuition and fees grant fund for part-time students.

UAF and UA statewide information technology services will consolidate and merge to improve efficiency, reduce unnecessary redundancy, diminish fragmentation of services and contain costs.

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The Student Drama Association, in collaboration with Theatre UAF, presents the Spring 2005 Winter Shorts selection of one-act plays Feb. 25--March 6 in the Lee Salisbury Theatre.

The Nanook rifle team will compete in the NCAA Rifle Championships in March, attempting to once again capture the national title, making it a record-breaking seven consecutive championships.

The Festival of Native Arts will take place in the Charles Davis Concert Hall and the Regents' Great Hall March 3--5, 2005. Students and faculty of the UAF Native studies department sponsor this celebration of Alaska Native dancing, singing and arts.

Gov. Murkowski's FY06 capital budget includes $10.8 million for UAF projects to address critical life safety, code compliance and renewal projects.

Summer Sessions offerings will include lectures in June by Bob Edwards, veteran NPR newscaster; and in July by Martin Goldsmith, longtime host of NPR's Performance Today. A full lineup of academic and professional development classes will start in May.

The UAF Alaska Native studies department is developing a week-long summer institute for undergraduate students from British Columbia who are majoring in First Nations studies.

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