In December 2008 the Trustees encouraged development of a new basic science program on "Deep Carbon," tentatively described in the Transition Strategy paper provided to the Trustees. With Trustee support, the Carnegie Institution of Washington (CIW) will launch the development of a worldwide Deep Carbon Observatory and serve as its anchor institution. The Deep Carbon Program would address four major areas. First, it would seek to estimate more accurately the reservoirs of carbon from the core, where iron may bind large amounts of carbon, through the mantle where convective cells may carry it upward to the crust which traps the reservoirs that are most familiar to humanity. While some crustal reservoirs may be "biotic," that is, formed from formerly living matter that is buried and cooked in the crust, it is now clear that Earth also contains much larger amounts of abiotic carbon, part of the primordial rock and gas at the planet's origins. Improving estimates of fluxes would be the second major focus of the Deep Carbon Observatory. The third focus would be the origins and synthesis of the particular chemical forms that carbon takes, including methane, which the high pressures and temperatures at great depths make possible. The fourth focus would be deep life. Humanity has never drilled deeper than life. The mud recovered from the deepest holes contains microbes. Geobiologists conjecture that the weight of the "deep hot biosphere" may rival the weight of the surface biosphere. The strategy of the Deep Carbon Observatory proposal draws on experiences of the Digital Sky Survey, Census of Marine Life, and other Sloan science initiatives. Success will depend on development of innovative instruments for working at very high pressures and temperatures. Success will also depend on high leveraging of Sloan funds: the CIW proposal aims to reach $50 million in additional commitments within three years. The leaders of the effort-Robert Hazen, a geologist and superb communicator with broad interests including biology, and Russell Hemley, a top expert in high-pressure instrumentation-have strong worldwide networks and propose the Deep Carbon Observatory with enormous excitement. The highly respected President of the Carnegie Institution of Washington, Richard Meserve, former chair of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, has participated directly in the project development and pledged Carnegie's own assets to the effort.

This is one of a trio of three-year renewal grants from the nation's leading film schools to continue awarding screenwriting and production awards for science and technology films and to hold an annual science and technology seminar. Many producers are now combing through all the Sloan student winners for new scripts. Our 2008 Sloan Summit, which showcased the work of student winners, attracted executives from the major studios and independent film companies. University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), which had some earlier issues due to personnel changes, has made great strides during the past three years. In the last cycle, UCLA turned in the best performance of any Sloan film school, including two outstanding scripts (The Magic Pill; The Ten Commandments of Leo Szilard). Several Sloan films UCLA submitted to festivals across the country have won awards and one production (Death Strip) took home a Student Emmy. UCLA is now next in line should we support another first feature production grant. While UCLA has increased its film production grants to offset rising production costs and added a modest stipend for more science advisors, it has compensated for these increases with other cuts so there is no net budget increase from 2006.

This is one of a trio of three-year renewal grants from the nation's leading film schools to continue awarding screenwriting and production awards for science and technology films and to hold an annual science and technology seminar. Many producers are now combing through all the Sloan student winners for new scripts. Our 2008 Sloan Summit, which showcased the work of student winners, attracted executives from the major studios and independent film companies. University of Southern California (USC) is the oldest film school in the country and consistently competes with New York University for the ranking of number one film school in the nation. It boasts the biggest program among our six schools and is also the only one that gives out a Sloan animation prize. USC has very strong ties with the industry and active alumni involved with the school include George Lucas, Steven Spielberg and Robert Zemeckis. USC graduates have done well in securing industry jobs and enjoy the benefits of a very strong network. USC has been very sensitive to the economic situation and this request is $5,000 lower than the previous request in 2006.

This is one of a trio of three-year renewal grants from the nation's leading film schools to continue awarding screenwriting and production awards for science and technology films and to hold an annual science and technology seminar. Many producers are now combing through all the Sloan student winners for new scripts. Our 2008 Sloan Summit, which showcased the work of student winners, attracted executives from the major studios and independent film companies. New York University Tisch School of the Arts, arguably our strongest overall performer, has continued to develop and refine its program. This year they propose several changes, including the addition of a "script doctor"-Professor Ezra Sacks, an established screenwriter-to advise and assist students in the development and writing of their screenplays. These changes and improvements have all been offset by cuts in other parts of the budget so the only net increase from 2006 is a small one for film production-from $20,000 to $25,000 a film or an increase of $10,000 a year for three years-because production costs have increased significantly. From the start, NYU Tisch has demonstrated a high degree of commitment and belief in this program. Tisch, usually tied with University of Southern California for number one in the national film school rankings, has devoted more faculty, administration and resources and given out more awards than any other Sloan film school. Trustee Campbell excused herself from the meeting when this grant was discussed.

Film Independent is one of the largest and most prominent film organizations dedicated to independent films in the United States. FI sponsors screenings, special events, film education and talent development for its 6,000 filmmaker members, who include established Oscar-winning actors and directors. Film Independent performed very well with the one previous two-year grant they received, yielding two outstanding projects: Basmati Blues, a romantic comedy with Bollywood elements about a female geneticist from the U.S. who goes to India to help farmers with genetically modified rice; and The Man Who Knew Infinity, a tale about the great Indian mathematician Ramanujan. FI requests a renewal for two years of continued support for the Producer's Lab grant, an intense seven-week program that focuses on ten scripts each year, and would also like to establish a $25,000 named fellowship for a second science-themed project. This fellowship would include a $10,000 production grant, underwriting for participation in Fast Track, an intensive film financing market that takes place at the Los Angeles Film Festival, and year-round support and resources from FI, including mentorship from science advisors. The thrust of both these programs, as with projects like Hedy Lamarr, is to try and push more of these science and technology film projects into production and distribution.

Since 1998 students in our Minority Ph.D. Program who are committed to or are considering academic careers and their faculty mentors have been invited to participate in the Institute on Teaching and Mentoring of the Southern Regional Education Board (SREB). The current request from SREB is for a three-year renewal of our grant that enables them to invite our students and faculty to the Institute and to run the next conference of campus directors with the Institute in 2010. For the most part, SREB proposed to continue doing what it has done successfully in the past. They will also make significant improvements in the areas of evaluation and in making participation in the Institute more meaningful to the students and faculty in our Indigenous Graduate Partnership Program. Participation in the Institute and the biennial conference is now an established and valuable component of the infrastructure of our minority programs that we would like to continue.