A Letter from the Director following the Tragic Events of April 16
April 23, 2007
Dear CPES conference participants and industry partners,
In the past week, our hearts have been heavy, but the overwhelming kindness and support that came pouring in from friends and colleagues from around the world have been extremely heartwarming and comforting. You have lifted our spirits, and for that, we give you all our heartfelt thanks!
With a preview of our annual conference, we were confident that this year's program would have been a big success. Our student conference committee had worked very hard to ensure that the event would showcase the best of our collective efforts to our industry participants and the NSF Site Visit Team. Who could have imagined that the meeting could be interrupted so abruptly with a tragic event of this magnitude? Early that afternoon, the management made a good and swift decision to shut down our activities to make available the facilities for families of the victims, as well as the unavoidable media. Shortly after, the hotel was packed with families and friends of those involved, and media satellite trucks were all over campus. On that dark, dark day, we witnessed a horrific tragedy, an incident totally unimaginable in our peaceful little town. The healing process will be long, but the Hokie spirit has been united and strong. With students returning to class today, we will keep our heads up high and try to resume normalcy.
We deeply regret the cancellation of the CPES Conference midstream. To complete your packet of conference materials, we will send you the Poster Book by mail. This booklet was not included in the CPES bag of conference materials as we had planned to provide that at the entrance to the labs during the Dialogue/Poster Session. As for paid registrants, we would like to offer full refunds. In addition, to provide member benefits to our industry partners, we plan to make recordings of the presentations and post them on the CPES website for member access.
With everyone's busy schedule, we know it would be impossible to reschedule the 2007 conference this year. You are cordially invited to join us for the 2008 Annual Conference, scheduled for the week of April 12-18, 2008. This will also be our 10th Year NSF Site Visit to celebrate the Center's graduation from the ERC Program. We hope to see you then.
As we move forward, we want to thank you once again, most sincerely, for your kind understanding, condolences and support!
With warm regards,
Fred Lee
CPES Director
University Distinguished Professor