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2 report of the director and ceoThanks to the generous support of organizations like the Howard Hughes MedicalInstitute, the Burroughs Wellcome Fund, the National Institutes of Health, theNational Science Foundation, the scores of vendors who lend our courses millionsof dollars worth of equipment, and numerous other foundations, individuals, andfederal agencies, the MBL has the resources to put together courses like no other.These courses are intensive, engaging, and, most importantly, on the cutting edgeof biology. They are taught by the best faculty we can find from the best medicalschools and universities around the globe.Without these vital partnerships and without the dedication of our faculty members—who participate for the love of teaching, certainly not for the modest compensation—the MBL’s educational programs would become commonplace. To all who have madethe MBL’s educational programs what they are today—students, faculty, donors andfunding agencies, vendors, administrators, and staff—I am most grateful.I hope that one legacy of my tenure as director will be the addition of yet anotherpremiere MBL educational endeavor, the Brown-MBL Graduate Program in Biologicaland Environmental Sciences. I consider the establishment of this program to be oneof my proudest achievements. Creating a joint program of this magnitude is no easytask. Thanks to the outstanding leadership and support of Ruth Simmons and BobZimmer at Brown and the efforts of Bill Beers, Jerry Melillo, and others on the MBLstaff, the interactions between the two institutions at every stage of this buddingrelationship have gone remarkably well. In three short years, the program is alreadywell established. Eleven students are now enrolled, and we will graduate our firststudent, April Shiflett, this summer. In addition, some MBL investigators have facultyappointments at Brown and are now teaching or team-teaching courses in Providence.In addition, a number of Brown faculty members have MBL appointments. Researchcollaborations among scientists of both institutions are also flourishing.Establishing a graduate program in partnership with a leading university was acornerstone of another major initiative of my administration: the Strategic Plan.We have accomplished quite a lot since the plan was completed. We establishedthe Whitman Center for Summer and Visiting Science, encouraged the creation ofresearch clusters there, and doubled the funding for summer research fellowships,thanks to the Colwin Fellowships and Dart Scholars and Grass Faculty Programs. Wehave also added to and strengthened our Board of Trustees and invested more than$50 million in upgrades to our physical plant.