An international search for the first permanent director of RSI is planned for the 2000-2001 academic year. Most interdisciplinary groups on other campuses do not fill all parts of the field the way we do. Search for and hire a Director for the Institute in academic year 2000-2001, to provide leadership for our activities. This senior researcher will occupy a position in a department but the search will be broad, and the fit between the individual and a particular department will be done after the best candidate from a very broad pool is identified. Development of undergraduate Minor, with goal of gaining excellent graduate student pool for remote sensing graduate work.
Additional benefit is the collaborative work on courses and integration of courses.
We expect to respond to initiatives from NASA, NSF, NOAA and DOE as appropriate. We hope for one new major short course or seminar by summer of 2001. Interdisciplinary graduate programs are one way to attract excellent students and also to help MTU's goal of Carnegie I status. RSI already supports several graduate degree programs and can possibly support the development of others. We will help provide leadership for the consideration of issues relating to research faculty, who offer the university an opportunity of increasing its research stature and productivity.