W. G. Large (5/29/98)

To whom it may concern : As solicited, a comment on the "Report of the APROPOS workshop". My overall impression of the document is that it reads like press release direct from NSF OCE. It essentially endorses the status quo, by lauding past achievements supported out of CORE, ignoring its failures, and passing off problems to other agencies. As such the document misses an opportunity to express valid concerns about the future of physical oceanography in general and NSF PO core in particular. I have no illusion that anything I say will change anything, but will take the opportunity to express my greatest concern. It is the growing fraction of support that is being provided agencies other than NSF, where peer review is either token, or non-existent. It is such support that really offers the "best" path for young scientists in the sense of being more secure, and less competitive. In many area it is hard to see how anyone of NSF core support could compete. I won't waste my time expressing a number of other concerns, since the concensus of the meeting appears to be that all is well.

Bill Large