OHSU Campus communications

From: Peter Kohler, President
08/29/2006

To the OHSU Campus Community:

It is my pleasure to announce the launch of the Center for Coastal Margin Observation & Prediction (CMOP), a major new focus for OHSU-led research on a healthier environment. The Center will greatly expand OHSU's OGI School of Science & Engineering's pioneering work on coastal margins, the biologically rich but highly vulnerable environments where rivers meet the ocean.

The Center demonstrates how OGI's programs contributes to the vision we have for making OHSU one of the world's most unique academic health centers. The Center's future location will be at OHSU's Schnitzer Campus.

Over the next five years OHSU and its partners, Oregon State University and the University of Washington, will add to National Science Foundation core funding of $19 million to create the $24.6 million center. CMOP is one of only 17 active NSF Science and Technology Centers, which are designed to build knowledge that transforms disciplines.

The award for this Center recognizes that environmental health and human health are linked--an understanding that promises to transform education and research in ways that benefit all Oregonians. CMOP will engage K-12 students in education that focuses on solving real-world environmental problems. One of the Center's most significant goals is to attract a more diverse range of these students to science and engineering careers.

We expect media coverage on Tuesday of this grant announcement. In addition, you can find additional information by visiting http://www.ohsu.edu/coastalmargin/ on our OHSU web site (live by 5 p.m. today) or by visiting the center's new web site at http://www.stccmop.org

Peter O. Kohler, M.D.
President