IODP-MI Science Coordinator Nobu Eguchi greets guests as they arrive for the Town Meeting.

Heike Delius, logging staff scientist (Leicester Univ.), and Masako Tominaga, graduate student (TAMU) about to sail on Leg 305, Atlantis Core Complex Formation II, enjoy refreshments together.

SPPOC member Nick Pisias, Bruce Malfait (NSF), and John Diebold (LDO).

IODP-MI Vice President of Science Planning Hans Christian Larsen, Greg Moore, and David Scholl.

Ursula Roehl, curator at the University of Bremen core repository, and Henk Brinkhuis, recently aboard the ACEX expedition.

Science Planning Committee member Terry Quinn and Tom Janecek, IODP-MI Vice President, Science Operations.

USSAC member Harold Tobin, JOI Director of Ocean Drilling Frank Rack, Stuart Williams (USIO), Mitch Lyle, and Yoshi Kawamura (CDEX).

John Delaney and Jamie Austin.

EMA Director Catherine Mevel and Takeshi Matsumoto, professor at Ryukyu University.

JOI Education Coordinator Leslie Peart, USSSP Senior Program Associate Susan Boa, and Holly Given, USSSP Director.

IODP scientist, Greg Moore, and Hajimu Kinoshita, JAMSTEC executive director.

Juan de Fuca co-chief scientist, Andy Fisher, shares the expedition’s mission and results.

Margaret Leinen, Assistant Director of the NSF Directorate for Geosciences, abandons her prepared text in favor of raising a toast to IODP.

Yasuhisa Tanaka, Director for Deep Sea Research, Ocean and Earth Division, MEXT, praises the IODP program, its achievements, and its future potential.

IODP-MI President and CEO, Manik Talwani, opens the Town Meeting.

Arctic Coring Expedition co-chief scientist, Kate Moran, gives a dramatic account of the ice-challenged mission near the North Pole.

Director of US Scientific Ocean Drilling Vessel Conversion Project, Stuart Williams, addresses future plans for the USIO platform.

CDEX senior scientist, Yoshi Kawamura, of the Japan Agency for Marine-Earth Science and Technology closes his presentation with a Japanese comic strip that popularizes the CHIKYU drillship.

Science Planning Committee Chair, Mike Coffin, looks ahead to fulfilling IODP’s 10-year science plan.

Yasuhisa Tanaka models the evening’s special party favor.