Notable happenings

• Tom McCord has recently been featured in two web articles about Bear Fight Institute and Vesta under "Methow Grist" at www.methownet.com.
• The 4^th Small Ice-Silicate Bodies workshop took place between August 15-17, 2011 at the Bear Fight Institute, Winthrop WA. The workshop was focused on the state of knowledge of the Themis Family and on the science objects for future research on these "wet" small objects.
• Tom McCord recently completed a several-year service on the Science Definition Team for the joint NASA-ESA Europa-Jupiter and Ganymede-Jupiter Science Mission planning effort, led by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory.
• The 3^rd Small Ice-Silicate Bodies workshop took place between August 6-8, 2010 at the Bear Fight Institute, Winthrop WA. The workshop was focused on developing a surface composition model for the Dawn mission.
• Georgiana Kramer attended the Lunar Science Institute annual workshop at Ames Research Center, July 2010.
• In June 2010 the Moon Minerology Mapper, Chandrayaan-1 group met with Tom McCord, Jean-Philippe Combe and Georgiana Kramer attending.
• Jean-Philippe Combe and Tom McCord attended the Dawn mission science team meeting near Rome Italy April 2010 and spent time working with the Italian group leading the spectrometer effort for Dawn at their institute near Rome.
• Georgiana Kramer, Jean-Philippe Combe and Tom McCord participated in the Lunar and Planetary Science Conference, Houston TX, March 2010, and attending satellite meetings and workshops.
• Dr. Georgiana Kramer and intern John Sinclair appeared in the February, 2010 edition of Methow Valley Pride.
• The Bear Fight Institute and its role in discovering water on the moon is featured in the January 7, 2010 issue of Methow Valley News.
• The 2^nd Small Ice-Silicate Bodies workshop took place between September 1-3, 2009 at the Bear Fight Institute, Winthrop WA. Protoplanet Ceres was the major topic.
• Dr. W. Farrand and Paul Hayne (UCLA) will be visiting the Bear Fight Institute 29-31 July 2009 to collaborate with Drs. McCord and Combe on NASA Mars Express Color Analysis of the MER Sites (part of MDAP).
• 17-19 June 2009, Dr. Jean-Philippe Combe of the Bear Fight Institute hosted a workshop on VIRTIS data analysis. Visiting scientists Drs. U. Fink and R. Carlson collaborated with the institute’s science team.
• The Bear Fight Institute congratulates former student intern Garrett Heitman on his high school graduation in June 2009! We wish Garrett the best of luck working in Alaska this summer and his future plans to attend Montana State University to study engineering.
• 27-28 May 2009, Dr. Georgiana Kramer of the Bear Fight Institute hosted two students from the Pateros High School. Dr. Kramer discussed careers in space science research with the students and gave them hands-on training in data analysis techniques.
• Winthrop is featured in the Wenatchee World article: Winthrop: Mecca for Northwest Recreation.
• A workshop on icy- silicate bodies took place between February 18-20, 2008 at the Bear Fight Institute, Winthrop WA. concerning modeling of the evolution of ice-silicate bodies. It was an informal discussion of the status and future directions of this field, especially as it concerns Saturn’s and Jupiter’s satellites and Ceres — objects at ~ 3-10 AU.
• Dr. Tom McCord is featured in the article Mission to the Forgotten Planets, about NASA’s Dawn mission, published in the February, 2008 issue of Discover magazine.
• Sun Mountain Lodge, also located in Winthrop, WA, appeared in USA Today’s 10 great places to peacefully glide cross-country: "Methow Valley is one of the largest Nordic centers in North America, with more than 120 miles of interconnected trails," Frado says. "The terrain is varied to suit all skill levels, from beginners to competitive racers."