I was down in Washington, DC, last week for two days - I flew down on Thursday morning from Boston ($69) and gave a brown-bag lunch at the National Science Foundation. We had about 20 attendees, primarily staff from the International Programs Office and the Division of Elementary, Secondary, & Informal Education Program (ESIE, pronounced easy).

As Fulbright scholars, we have an obvious link with the NSF international office. ESIE is relevant because of the informal education component - informal education refers to projects that develop and implement informal learning experiences designed to increase interest, engagement, and understanding of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) by individuals of all ages and backgrounds. They also fund projects that communicate NSF-funded research to public audiences.

Then in the afternoon, I had four meetings: with the director for NSF's program to enhance minority participation in the sciences, the director of the Fulbright Teacher Exchange Program, the new president of the National Capital Area Chapter of the Fulbright Association, and the new alumni coordinator at AmidEast, which administers student Fulbighters from the Middle East. In the evening, there was a reception with additional conversations at the National Geographic Society, hosted by the European Commission - they are building a network of European scientists living in the US, with the goal of luring some of them back to Europe.

Each of these meetings led to new ideas - I am glad we are not based in Washington; otherwise I would always be chasing new leads and not getting projects to completion. On the other hand, it was very nice to leave Washington on Friday morning with verbal promises of over $25,000 to fund projects. (The paperwork has not been finalized, so I can't formally say what the project is or who it is coming from.)

The other nice thing from this week is that we selected the dates for our March 2007 conference in Panama City: March 1-4 (Thurs-Sun). We will be at the El Panama Hotel, a little oasis in the center of the city. When I visited the hotel last month, they were hosting a regional meeting on the national parks and protected areas. That was an unexpected pleasure, because in the 1990's I worked for World Wildlife Fund and IUCN-the World Conservation Union, and my first trip to Latin America was to attend the IVth World Parks Congress in Caracas in 1992.

On the personal side, today was the last day of school for our kids - in the fall they will be in 3rd and 5th grade. As in previous years, we celebrated with a picnic on the beach with a dozen other school families.