With this second edition of the HRI News, we are pleased to display our newly revised website (harteresearchinstitute.org) which is further described in this newsletter. We have wanted for some time to provide a classy, informative, and useful website; hopefully, we are progressing toward that goal. We invite anyone to make suggestions for the improvement of our communication methods, particularly the HRI News, and the website. We really do want to share with you the activities of the Institute and its tremendous progress as well as learning from you about opportunities that HRI could be pursuing.

As many of you are aware, I have announced my retirement as Executive Director effective 1 January 2008. This is something that has been planned into our operations from the time that I assumed the directorship. TAMU-CC President Flavius Killebrew has announced the formation of a HRI Director Search Advisory Committee who will assist the administration in identifying and assessing candidates for the position.

Elsewhere in HRI News, the membership of the Committee is identified. I am sure that the co-chairs of the Committee, Dean Pezold and Vice President Hill would be very receptive to your nominations of candidates for this position.

Our new school year is rapidly approaching as classes officially start on August 22nd. Being a research operation, the summer is a very busy time at HRI and what we witness with the new year are the new students who will be joining us. When we moved into the HRI building in November 2005, less than two years ago, we seemed to rattle around with all the new space. However, to illustrate our impressive growth, we had to take one of our larger rooms and convert it into working spaces for at least 15 graduate students mostly working on their Ph.D. degrees. These are good problems to have. The new and existing faculty members have been very busy generating projects involving these students.

   - Bob Furgason, Executive Director