October 2003

From American Geophysical Union

Media Advisory 2 - AGU Fall Meeting

Abstracts Online; Field Trip Planned; U.S. Visa Changes Postponed

Contents

  1. Sessions and Abstracts Online and Searchable
      A. Searching for Abstracts of Interest to You
      B. Finding Sessions at Fall Meeting
  2. Field Trip Planned for Sunday, December 7
  3. Press Reception and Program, Sunday, December 7
  4. Press Conferences in Development
  5. Press Room goes Wi-Fi
  6. U.S. Visa Changes Postponed to 2004
  7. Hotels and Air Fares
  8. Press Registration Eligibility
  9. Press Registration Form
  10. Who's coming

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1. Sessions and Abstracts Online and Searchable

All 810 sessions and 9,070 abstracts for 2003 Fall Meeting have been posted on the AGU web site.

    A. Searching for Abstracts of Interest to You

All 9,070 Fall Meeting abstracts may be accessed by a search tool: http://www.agu.org/meetings/fm03/waisfm03adv.html

Reporters and public information officers may search for abstracts of particular interest to them, by looking up any the following parameters on the search tool above:

Name of a scientist
Name of an institution (e.g., university, government agency)
Geographic location (e.g., city, state, province, or country)
Topic (e.g., volcano, Io, iceberg)

Up to three search parameters may be combined (e.g., presentations on earthquakes by USGS scientists in California). Full instructions are available from the search page.

Hint: In searching for abstracts from a particular institution, it is often more effective to search by e-mail address than by the name of the institution. The latter may be written in different ways by various authors (e.g., UCLA, University of California, Los Angeles, Univ. of Cal. at Los Angeles, etc.), but all of their e-mail addresses will presumably include "ucla." The search category "Affiliation" covers both names of institutions and their locations (e.g., look for either Yale or New Haven under Affiliation).

The CD-ROM and printed volume of abstracts for this meeting will be available in late November. They will be sent at that time to Press Room registrants who have requested them, while supplies last. (See Press Registration Form, below.) Copies in both formats will be available in the Press Room, as will the Program Book.

    B. Finding Sessions at Fall Meeting

The names, numerical designations, dates, times, and room numbers of all 810 sessions (464 oral, 346 poster) have been posted on the AGU web site at http://www.agu.org/meetings/fm03/fm03glan.shtml

By clicking on the name of a Section (e.g., Hydrology, Atmospheric Science), all of the sessions under that Section's auspices will be displayed. Clicking on any of these sessions will open a list of oral presentations and/or posters associated with that session. Clicking on the name of a particular presentation will open its abstract, including name and contact information for the lead author.

Many sessions are jointly sponsored by two or more Sections. Union Sessions have the broadest interdisciplinary appeal. Room numbers beginning "MCC" simply refer to Moscone Convention Center. Sessions listed as taking place on Level 1 or Level 2, with no specific room number, are poster sessions.

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2. Field Trip Planned for Sunday, December 7

Have you wondered about the wisdom of erecting skyscrapers in San Francisco, as we approach the centennial of the city's Big One? For that matter, what about the new, glass enclosed Moscone West building, home of Fall Meeting for the next decade at least? To answer these questions, our colleagues at the U.S. Geological Survey have put together another exciting field trip for Press registrants. It will take place on Sunday, December 7, from 1:00 p.m. to around 4:00 p.m. and focus on urban earthquake design.

This walking tour should prove enlightening and exciting, as well as provide you with material for stories. We will start in the new Moscone West building, the site of 2003 Fall Meeting. Moscone West is so unique from an engineering point of view that there is a patent on the design. It is also a building in which we can see the guts, if we are behind the scenes, as we will be.

We will begin with a briefing on the Advanced National Seismic System (ANSS) and advances in knowledge about monitoring earthquakes, earthquake safety, and related topics. Moscone West's design engineer will explain the building's unique seismic design aspects. USGS scientist Mehmet Celebi will then give an overview of why it is vital to fit buildings with seismic instruments and describe the instrumentation of Moscone West. Bill Leith, USGS coordinator for ANSS, will discuss the system and brief us on near real-time shake maps.

Next, we will don hard hats (provided by USGS) and tour Moscone West from top to bottom, beginning in the penthouse area, where the recorders and their GPS unit are located. We then walk down the stairs on the Howard Street side to see the building's framing system and some of the accelerometers.

We will then visit the new federal building that is under construction nearby. This building has many unique features from a seismic point of view, which its design engineer will describe.

From there we hope to visit the San Francisco Federal Court of Appeals or another historic building where we can learn about retrofitting buildings for earthquakes, especially historic structures. This last stop is, for the moment, tentative.

Sign-up information:

A. If you have not yet registered for Fall Meeting, please check "Yes" or "No" on the Press Registration Form to state whether you plan to participate in this field trip.

B. If you wish to participate and have already registered (you are on the Who's Coming list below), please submit another form, with just your name and the Field Trip box marked "Yes." (Negative responses are unnecessary.)

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3. Press Reception and Program will be on Sunday, December 7

Because Fall Meeting sessions begin earlier and end later than in past years, we are moving two regular events to Sunday afternoon, following the field trip.

The Press reception, usually held the first day of the meeting will take place Sunday at around 4:00 p.m., or whenever participants return from the field trip, in the Press Room (see below). This annual wine and cheese party is a great way to catch up with old friends and meet new ones.

The reception will be followed by a program in the Briefing Room, which will include the Overview briefing, normally held the first morning of the meeting. In the Overview, Robert Wesson, chair of Fall Meeting's program committee, highlights some of the exciting sessions, special lectures, and other events that reporters may want to cover, other than press conferences. In view of the record number of sessions and presentations this year, the Overview can help you focus your efforts.

The popular book and author program, featuring a new science book aimed at the general public, will be part of this program. Details are currently under development.

Sign-up information:

A. If you have not yet registered for Fall Meeting, please check "Yes" or "No"on the Press Registration Form to state whether you plan to attend the Press Reception and Program.

B. If you wish to attend and have already registered (you are on the Who's Coming list below), please submit another form, with just your name and the Press Reception box marked "Yes." (Negative responses are unnecessary.)

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4. Press Conferences in Development

We are currently in the process of organizing press conferences on some of Fall Meeting's many newsworthy sessions. We will send an advisory with a preliminary listing of press conferences early in November and the detailed list, including days, times, and participants, about a week before the meeting.

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5. Press Room goes Wi-Fi

The Fall Meeting Press Room and Briefing Room will be located on Level 2 of Moscone West, 800 Howard Street, San Francisco. The Press Room will be Room 2021; the Briefing Room will be 2012.

For the first time, the Fall Meeting Press Room will be equipped with wi-fi, allowing reporters to connect their laptops to the Internet without using dial-up modems. (Lobby areas of Moscone West will also have this capability.) We will also provide, as usual, a computer and printer for use by Press registrants, a fax, a copier, and a dozen phone lines (no charge for business calls).

A subsequent advisory will provide the phone and fax numbers for the Press Room.

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6. U.S. Visa Changes Postponed to 2004

The changes in United States visa regulations announced in Media Advisory 1 (http://www.agu.org/sci_soc/prrl/prrl0324.html#1) have been postponed for one year, to October 1, 2004. Therefore, citizens of most countries who do not normally need visas to enter the United States need not obtain a machine readable passport or visa this year in order to attend Fall Meeting.

Exceptions: the new rules are in effect from this year for citizens of these countries: Andorra, Brunei, Liechtenstein, Luxembourg, and Slovenia. These rules had previously been established for citizens of Belgium and remain in effect.

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7. Hotels and Air Fares

AGU has arranged with 15 San Francisco hotels to provide rooms to Fall Meeting attendees at prices ranging from $88 to $173 (double occupancy). The deadline for securing rooms at these rates is November 5, but some hotels fill up much sooner.

United Airlines is providing special discounts to Fall Meeting attendees.

For complete information on hotels and air travel, including a list of hotels, location map, and the online registration form, see http://www.agu.org/meetings/fm03/hoteltravel.shtml

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8. Press Registration Eligibility

Press registrants receive a badge that allows access to any of the scientific sessions of the meeting, as well as to the Press Room, Briefing Room, and other events specifically for media representatives. No one will be admitted without a valid badge. A registration form will be found at the end of this message.

Eligibility for press registration is limited to the following persons:

  • Working press representing bona fide news media with a press card, business card, or letter of introduction from an editor of the publication.
  • Freelance science writers, presenting a current membership card from NASW, a regional affiliate of NASW, CSWA, SEJ, or ISWA, or evidence of bylined work pertaining to science intended for the general public and published in 2001 or 2002.
  • Public information officers of scientific societies, educational institutions, and government agencies.

Note: Representatives of the business side of news media, publishing houses, and of for-profit corporations must register at the main registration desk and pay the appropriate fees.

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9. Press Registration Form

If possible, please use the online submission form at http://www.agu.org/sci_soc/fm03pressreg_cgi.html

This web site also provides a link to a form that can be printed and faxed or mailed to AGU.

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10. Who's Coming

The following persons have preregistered as of the day of this message. If you believe you have registered, but your name is not listed here, please resubmit the form. The deadline for preregistration is November 28. Onsite Press registration will be in the Press Room, Room 2021, not at the main registration windows.

Mario Aguilera, Scripps Institution of Oceanography
Anatta, National Center for Atmospheric Research
James Bela, Freelance
Molly Bentley, BBC
Andrew Bridges, Associated Press
Doug Brusa, Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory
Alan Buis, NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory
Cindy Clark, Scripps Institution of Oceanography
Robert Cowen, Christian Science Monitor
John Cox, Freelance
Pam Frost Gorder, Ohio State University
Leslie Gordon, U.S. Geological survey
Rob Gutro, NASA/GSFC Earth Science News Team
Martha Heil, Inside Science News Service
Robert Irion, ScienceNOW
Dick Kerr, Science
Jonathan Knight, Nature
Dawn Levy, Stanford University
Emilie Lorditch, Discoveries and Breakthroughs Inside Science
Rick Lovett, Freelance
Naomi Lubick, Geotimes
Debbie Meyer, Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute
Madeleine Nash, Time
Jan Null, San Jose Mercury News
Larry O'Hanlon, Discover News
Sid Perkins, Science News
David Perlman, San Francisco Chronicle
Charlie Petit, U.S. News & World Report
Donald Robertson, Astronomy Now
Linda Rowan, Science
Laurie Schmidt, NSIDC/CIRES
Megan Sever, Geotimes
Randy Showstack, Eos
Jay Stager, North Country Public Radio
Alan Stahler, KVMR-FM
Michael Starobin, NASA Television
Kathy Svitil, Discover
Marijke Unger, National Snow and Ice Data Center
John VanDecar, Nature
Lidia Wasowicz, United Press International
Krista West, Freelance
Kasey White, Joint Oceanographic Institutions
Alexandra Witze, Dallas Morning News
Kathleen Wong, California Wild









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