A one-time gift of $100,000 will go to the Oklahoma
Climatological Survey for general use.
How it happened
Finalized in July 2001, the OU-Williams alliance took shape
over two years of discussions. In 1998, the Market Analysis
Group at Williams began hiring OU meteorology graduates who had
been mentored by OU professors Peter Lamb and Michael Richman.
"This turned out to be a valuable and visionary move for
Williams. These former students have become a strong
testimonial to the quality of the OU meteorology program," says
professor of meteorology Kelvin Droegemeier. The company's
interest in a more formalized relationship was piqued after
Williams executives toured the OU campus in December 1999.
According to Williams president Keith Bailey, "This is a
partnership between business and higher education where both
parties benefit. All too often research and advancements
underwritten by business donations sit on the shelf gathering
dust. The OU weather research will move at the speed of
business to Williams, where our traders and originators will be
able to significantly reduce the risk associated with deals [on
time frames] from a moment's notice to more than 15 years in
the future."
Navigating the ethics
University-based knowledge is traditionally open to all,
whereas private companies are loath to reveal trade secrets.
How this inevitable conflict is handled in the OU-Williams
alliance may serve as a bellwether for similar teamings
elsewhere. According to Droegemeier, the intellectual property
produced through Williams funding will be owned by OU but
licensed in various ways to Williams. "We plan to protect
Williams' investment without compromising our academic freedom,
such as the need to publish in the open literature. They stay a
private company, and we stay a public institution that promotes
open discourse and a free exchange of information. No
restrictions are placed on publications, including
dissertations and theses, though of course we are careful to
not disclose within them information that is proprietary to
Williams. Furthermore, all software developed under the
Williams project may be used in nonprofit research and
education, which of course benefits the entire community."
How might the influx of private support for master's-level
students shift the composition of graduate programs? At OU,
Droegemeier notes that, while the total number of graduate
students has doubled and undergraduate enrollment has
quadrupled over the past 15 years, the ratio of master's- to
doctoral-level students has held roughly constant at two-to-
one. "It's possible that we might have as many as 8 to 12
fellows [in the professional meteorology program] at any point
in time, but probably not more, simply because of the
additional work needed to facilitate their activities and the
desire to maintain very high quality. Given that we don't plan
to add a significant number of faculty, I don't see [the ratio]
changing too much."
Droegemeier adds that the process of applying to the program
has features much like entrance into medical school. "We
interview each candidate carefully, looking for special
qualities and capabilities that go beyond an ability simply to
perform academically at the master's level. It's highly
competitive."
Droegemeier sees the OU-Williams alliance as part of what he
calls the changing landscape of meteorology. "The discipline of
meteorology is threefold: academia, private industry, and the
federal government, which includes operational centers,
research laboratories, and the military. The future will see a
much greater role played by the private sector, both in terms
of employment as well as technology development, and will
require much closer linkages among all groups. Most important,
everyone in the community is going to need a better
understanding of each other's purpose, interests, needs, and
constraints."
The new NAS panel on public-private issues
A long-standing debate on the respective roles of the National
Weather Service and private meteorologists has now moved into
the National Academy of Sciences. The NAS Committee on
Partnerships in Weather and Climate Services held its first two
meetings in Washington, D.C., on 29 August and 5 November. The
group will "examine the roles of the public, private, and
academic sectors in providing weather and climate services
and . . .identify opportunities for and barriers
to improving such services." The committee has put a variety of
presentations and supporting materials on line (see On the Web)
and invites community input through its Web site. They will
next assemble at the AMS Annual Meeting in Orlando, Florida,
for a town hall session open to all conference attendees during
the lunch hour on Wednesday, 17 January.
Committee members
John Armstrong (chair), IBM (retired)
Richard Anthes (vice-chair), UCAR
William Arms, Cornell University
William Easterling III, Pennsylvania State University
Ellen Gordon, Iowa Emergency Management Division
Richard Greenfield, American Meteorological Society
William Hoover, consultant
Jessica Litman, Wayne State University
Gordon McBean, University of Western Ontario
Ravi Nathan, Aquila
Henry Perritt Jr., Chicago-Kent College of Law
Roger Pielke Jr., University of Colorado
Maria Pirone, Weather Services International
Roy Radner, New York University
Robert Ryan, WRC-TV, Washington, D.C.
Karen Sollins, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
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In this issue... •
Other issues of UCAR Quarterly
UCAR •
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UOP
Edited by Bob Henson,
bhenson@ucar.edu
Prepared for the Web by Jacque Marshall
Last revised: Thu Dec 20 16:42:17 MST 2001
