homenews

Breakthrough in Geothermal Energy at Utah FORGE

June 3, 2024

Breakthrough in Geothermal Energy
at Utah FORGE

June 3, 2024
Above: The Utah FORGE site near Milford, Utah. PHOTO CREDIT: ERIC LARSON, FLASH POINT SLC.

In $218 million DOE-funded research project, University of Utah scientists aim to make enhanced geothermal a key part of world's energy portfolio.

A major University of Utah-led geothermal research project, funded by the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), achieved a critical breakthrough in April after hydraulically stimulating and circulating water through heated rock formations a mile and a half beneath its drill site in the Utah desert and bringing hot water to the surface. The test results are seen as an important step forward in the search for new ways to use Earth’s subsurface heat to produce hot water for generating emissions-free electricity. The successful well stimulations and a nine-hour circulation test were the fruits of years of planning and data analysis at the Utah FORGE facility near Milford, 175 miles southwest of Salt Lake City.

More than two-thirds of the water that was injected underground and pushed through the fractured formation—acquiring heat on the way—was extracted from a second well, offering proof that enhanced geothermal systems (EGS) technology could be viable, according to John McLennan, a co-principal investigator on the project formally known as the Utah Frontier Observatory for Research in Geothermal Energy, or Utah FORGE.

“Nine hours is enough to prove that you have a connection and that you’re producing heat,” said McLennan, a U professor of chemical engineering. “It really is a Eureka moment. It’s been 60 years coming, and so this actually is significant.”

Kris Pankow, associate director of the U of U Seismograph Stations

Utah FORGE is a $218 million research project, involving numerous institutions and industry partners, funded by a DOE grant to the U’s Energy & Geoscience Institute. The project aims to develop and de-risk new geothermal technologies that could potentially be deployed all over the world, not just where conventional geothermal plants are sited.

For this recent test, FORGE personnel and industry specialists directionally drilled two boreholes—one for injecting water underground and the other for extracting it. The injection well is 10,897 feet long and drops to a depth of 8,559 feet below the surface. “We speculate, and we’ll see this in the 30-day test, that as we fill the fracture system back up, this number is going to get to where I’m suspecting it’s 85 to 90% efficiency,” McLennan said.

Equally promising was the absence of any noticeable ground shaking associated with the stimulations and circulation test. U seismologists led by geology professor Kris Pankow, associate director of the U of U Seismograph Stations, are overseeing an extensive network of seismometers to document ground movement associated with the project.

Discover more about this Breakthrough by visiting the full article by Brian Maffly at @The U.

Shared Landscapes: Wolves and Humans in Rural Turkey

June 3, 2024

Shared Landscapes
Wolves and Humans in Rural Turkey

May 30, 2024
Above: Photo of the wolf captured by Çağan Şekercioğlu on eastern Turkey’s Kars-Ardahan plateau. Photo Credit: Çağan Şekercioğlu

Utah biologists track gray wolves with GPS collars and camera traps as their numbers rebound into populated parts of northeast Turkey.

After 14 years of gathering and analyzing field data, an international research team led by University of Utah biologist Çağan Şekercioğlu has released the first and only study of gray wolf movements and ecology in Turkey. Using GPS collars and camera traps, researchers tracked seasonal variations of wolves’ range sizes in the highlands of Turkey’s rural northeastern corner, where people are widely present during the summer but mostly absent in the winter when the area is completely snowbound. The team was surprised to discover human presence had no effect on wolf movements.

“Even though human activity changes drastically, wolves are not taking advantage of that by increasing their home range size or changing their home range size between the seasons when humans are there and when they’re not there,” said J. David Blount, lead author of the study published this month in the journal Wildlife Biology. “Theoretically they have a lot of different needs during these times that should be fluctuating, especially with the dispersing wolves.”

Çağan Şekercioğlu (center)

“Wolves are very adjustable, which leads to many exciting behavioral adaptations,” said Blount, a graduate student in Şekercioğlu’s lab. “However, studies are pretty context-dependent.”

Since the mid-1990s, wolves have been making a comeback following re-introductions in the Yellowstone region, Arizona and, most recently, western Colorado. The wolf situation in eastern Turkey is completely different, according to Şekercioğlu, a professor of biology. While wolves have been a problem for livestock operations, shepherds and ranchers have learned to live with the apex predator with the help of Anatolian sheepdogs, which protect cattle and sheep without harming the wolves.

The study area covered 550 square kilometers surrounding Sarıkamış, a town of 15,500.  Over 14 research seasons, running from mid-May to mid-August, the research team captured 46 wolves and fitted them with GPS collars, which recorded a location every five hours and are designed to fall off after two years. The cameras yielded 26,000 photos of wildlife and countless others that recorded animals other than wildlife.

According to the study, as wolves resettle areas near towns, understanding how wolves adjust their temporal and spatial patterns in human-dominated landscapes can contribute to their conservation. An ornithologist who studies tropical songbirds, Şekercioğlu began eying wolves when he moved from Stanford University in 2010 and used startup funds provided by the University of Utah to initiate the project, also supported by grants from Fondation Segré, the Sigrid Rausing Trust and the Whitley Fund.

Read the full story by Brian Maffly, @The U.

SRI Stories: Parker Guzman

May 29, 2024

SRI Stories: Of Bees & Pigeons

May 29, 2024

“We were given the opportunity to ask novel questions,” Parker Guzman says of the Science Research Initiative (SRI) in the College of Science, “as well as the methods and process of experiments. That’s lacking in undergraduate research a lot of the time.”

Parker worked in the Briggs/Steffen SRI stream, which focuses on pollination biology. The lab, in which students actively participate in field research and molecular protocols, studies native bees and their molecular structure in order to better understand the plants they pollinate and how to help native bees in the environment.

Parker is majoring in biology, with an emphasis in ecology and evolution with a minor in integrative human biology.

“After I leave the U,” Parker says, “I want to work in the field and then apply for a PhD program in ecology and evolution. I could see myself staying in academia, I enjoy teaching or doing research.”

In 2023, Parker won the Department of Chemistry’s Kodak Educational Service Fellow Award for mentorship. He works as a teaching assistant for organic chemistry classes.

“A professional hero of mine is Hank Green,” Parker says. “He’s an author and science communicator and has done a lot of work on platforms like YouTube to make science more accessible.”

Parker is the president of the undergraduate chapter of SACNAS at the U, a club that promotes and supports diversity in STEM. SACNAS often attends conferences, such as the one in Portland, Oregon last year. Parker also organized a smaller, local conference at the U in April, where around one hundred people participated. SACNAS won the Recognized Student Organization award for belonging from the University of Utah.

Along with SACNAS, Guzman works in the Clayton/Bush lab in the School of Biological Sciences. He became interested in their research after attending a lecture on parasitology. Focusing on host-parasite coadaptation and diversification, the Clayton/Bush lab works with birds, using captive birds as well as field work to research these mechanisms.

Guzman’s research within the Clayton/Bush lab is on the relationship between molt and preening behavior in captive pigeons.

“Molt is a huge but necessary energy investment for pigeons,” explains Parker. “So we expect them to downregulate other behaviors. But preening may not be downregulated due to the role it plays in maintaining plumage health.”

“Despite what most people think,” adds Parker Guzman, “pigeons are one of the smartest animals in the world.”

 

by CJ SIebeneck

L.S. Skaggs Applied Science Building Named at the U

May 29, 2024

L.S. SKAGGS APPLIED SCIENCE BUILDING NAMED AT THE U

May 28, 2024
Above:  Rendering of the new L.S. Skaggs Applied Science Building

The ALSAM Foundation has made a substantial gift toward the latest addition to the science campus at the University of Utah: the L.S. Skaggs Applied Science Building.

The 100,000-square-foot building will include modern classrooms and instruction spaces, cutting-edge physics and atmospheric science research laboratories, and faculty and student spaces. Scientists in the new building will address urgent issues, including energy, air quality, climate change, and drought. The building’s naming honors L.S. “Sam” Skaggs, the philanthropist and businessman whose retail footprint spread across the Mountain West and the U.S.

Building Construction -  April 30, 2024

Expressing profound gratitude for the transformative gift, Peter Trapa, Dean of the College of Science, shared, “We deeply appreciate The ASLAM Foundation’s extraordinary generosity. This gift is a testament to the value the organization places on higher education and its transformational impact on students and communities. It continues the Skaggs family's legacy in Utah and at our state’s flagship university. The new L.S. Skaggs Applied Science Building, a beacon of scientific innovation, will play an essential role in educating students in STEM programs throughout the University of Utah. This much-needed building allows the U to expand its STEM capacity and continue to serve our region’s expanding workforce needs.”

The construction of the L.S. Skaggs Applied Science Building is part of the Applied Science Project, which also includes the renovation of the historical William Stewart Building. The overall project is scheduled to be completed by next summer. Combined with the Crocker Science Center and a new outdoor plaza abutting the historic Cottam’s Gulch, the three buildings and outdoor space will comprise the Crocker Science Complex named for Gary and Ann Crocker.

The Skaggs family has a long history of supporting universities through The ALSAM Foundation, including the University of Utah. Other ALSAM Foundation-supported projects at the U include the L.S. Skaggs Pharmacy Research Institute, housed in the Skaggs Pharmacy Building, and the Aline S. Skaggs Biology Building, named after Mr. Skaggs’s wife.

The ALSAM Foundation issued the following statement, “The ALSAM Foundation and the members of the Skaggs family are pleased to continue the legacy of Mr. Skaggs at the University of Utah.  The Applied Science Project will benefit STEM education which was one of the goals of Mr. Skaggs.”

 

 

Researchers Look to Origins of New Particle Formation

May 24, 2024

RESEARCHERS LOOK TO ORIGINS OF NEW PARTICLE FORMATION

May 24, 2024
Above: ARM’s ArcticShark soars overhead, capturing measurements to document new particle formation and turbulence in the atmospheric boundary layer. Photo is by Tomlinson.

FIRST USER-DRIVEN ARCTICSHARK CAMPAIGN TAKES FLIGHT IN OKLAHOMA

In the complex dance of atmospheric processes affecting Earth’s energy balance, new particle formation (NPF) is emerging as a center-stage performer—one that helps determine, on a global scale, how clouds absorb and reflect solar radiation. While some aerosols found in the atmosphere are emitted directly as particles from natural or human sources, other aerosols form in the atmosphere from condensation of gases, such as sulfuric acid, that were themselves emitted by various sources. Scientists are studying how often NPF occurs in the atmosphere, and how it contributes to the formation of cloud condensation nuclei. These seed-like particles are where water vapor condenses to make clouds and precipitation.

Gerardo Carrillo-Cardenas (left) and Gannet Hallar, posing together on the University of Utah campus, are co-leading a field campaign that uses ARM’s ArcticShark uncrewed aerial system (UAS) in Oklahoma. Photo is courtesy of Hallar.

On May 6, 2024, a small research team from the University of Utah launched Turbulent Layers Promoting New Particle Formation, an Atmospheric Radiation Measurement (ARM) user facility field campaign designed to help scientists better understand the relationship between turbulence and NPF.

“This campaign is unique,” says co-principal investigator Gannet Hallar, a fan of the low- and slow-flying measurement platform. “We will be able to observe these atmospheric processes on the ground and in the air.” Working with Hallar, an ARM data veteran, is her PhD student and co-principal investigator Gerardo Carrillo-Cardenas. They are starting with an established fact: that within the lower troposphere, commonly called the atmospheric boundary layer, turbulent mixing can help initiate NPF.

Hallar and Carrillo-Cardenas are building upon previous work (Siebert et al. 2004, Wehner et al. 2010, and Wu et al. 2021) that considered the possibility of particle formation from intense mixing between the residual layer and the growing atmospheric boundary layer. “We are really seeking to understand how the movement of the atmosphere itself, at a small scale, impacts the formation of aerosols,” says Hallar, “and what chemical components are needed to spark that formation.”

The ArcticShark is equipped with an aerosol instrument package to collect the data needed to address the campaign’s science questions. This package includes a portable optical particle spectrometer and a miniaturized scanning electrical mobility sizer. The Utah team is also taking advantage of the SGP’s ground-based Aerosol Observing System, basic meteorological measurements, regular radiosonde launches, and remote sensing instruments, such as Raman lidars and ceilometers.

The U.S. Department of Energy’s Atmospheric System Research (ASR) program is funding the project. The objective of the ASR project is to examine ARM data globally and better understand NPF’s contribution to cloud condensation nuclei.

Read the full article by Mike Wasem, Staff writer, Pacific Northwest National Laboratory in ARM: Dept. of Energy.

Chemist Aaron Puri Receives Simons Foundation Early Career Award

May 23, 2024

Chemist Aaron Puri Receives Simons Foundation Early Career Award

PURI RECOGNIZED FOR PIONEERING RESEARCH INTO METHANE-MITIGATING MICROBIAL ECOSYSTEMS


“I am honored to receive this award and excited to join the community of researchers supported by the Simons Foundation to answer fundamental questions about microbial ecology and evolution.” says Aaron Puri, Assistant Professor in the Department of Chemistry and the Henry Eyring Center for Cell and Genome Science and one of five awardees for 2024. The Simons Foundation Early Career Investigator in Aquatic Microbial Ecology and Evolution Award recognizes outstanding researchers in the fields of microbial ecology, microbial biogeochemistry, and microbial evolution in marine or natural freshwater systems. Its purpose is to promote the careers of investigators who contribute to understanding these areas.

Puri joined the College of Science faculty in 2019 after working as a postdoctoral fellow at the University of Washington. He earned his Ph.D. in Chemical and Systems Biology from Stanford University in 2013, and his B.S. from the University of Chicago in 2008. Puri has also received the NIH Maximizing Investigators’ Research Award and the NSF CAREER Award. 

“This award will enable our research group to work at the interface of biology and chemistry to decipher the molecular details of interactions in methane-oxidizing bacterial communities,” says Puri. His research aims to solve big problems with microscopic solutions. “These communities provide a biotic sink for the potent greenhouse gas methane, and are a useful system for understanding how bacteria interact with each other and their environment while performing critical ecosystem functions.” The Simons Award is an indicator that this is only the beginning of Puri’s research successes.

 

by Lauren Wigod

 

Tapping coal mines for rare-earth materials

May 23, 2024

Tapping coal mines for rare-earth materials

May 23, 2024
Above: Michael Vanden Berg, a geologist with the Utah Geological Survey, examines a coal outcrop near Utah's old Star Point mine. Credit: Lauren Birgenheier

 

In a groundbreaking study led by the University of Utah, researchers have discovered elevated concentrations of rare earth elements (REEs) in active coal mines rimming the Uinta coal belt of Colorado and Utah.

This finding suggests that these mines, traditionally known for their coal production, could potentially serve as secondary sources for critical minerals essential for renewable energy and high-tech applications. "The model is if you're already moving rock, could you move a little more rock for resources towards energy transition? " Lauren Birgenheier, an associate professor of geology and geophysics, explains, In those areas, we're finding that the rare earth elements are concentrated in fine-grain shale units, the muddy shales that are above and below the coal seams."

Lauren Birgenheier

This research was conducted in partnership with the Utah Geological Survey and Colorado Geological Survey as part of the Department of Energy-funded Carbon Ore, Rare Earth and Critical Minerals project, or CORE-CM. The new findings will form the basis for a grant request of an additional $9.4 million in federal funding to continue the research.

"When we talk about them as 'critical minerals,' a lot of the criticality is related to the supply chain and the processing," said Michael Free, a professor metallurgical engineering and the principal investigator on the DOE grant. "This project is designed around looking at some alternative unconventional domestic sources for these materials."

The U-led study was published last month in the journal Frontiers in Earth Science. Team members included graduate students Haley Coe, the lead author, and Diego Fernandez, a research professor who runs the lab that tested samples.

“The goal of this phase-one project was to collect additional data to try and understand whether this was something worth pursuing in the West,” said study co-author Michael Vanden Berg, Energy and Minerals Program Manager at the Utah Geological Survey. “Is there rare earth element enrichment in these rocks that could provide some kind of byproduct or value added to the coal mining industry?”

Haley Coe, U geology graduate student, inspects drilling cores. Photo Credit: Lauren Birgenheier.

“The coal itself is not enriched in rare earth elements,” Vanden Berg said. “There's not going to be a byproduct from mining the coal, but for a company mining the coal seam, could they take a couple feet of the floor at the same time? Could they take a couple feet of the ceiling? Could there be potential there? That's the direction that the data led us.”

To gather samples, the team worked directly with mine operators and examined coal seam outcrops and processing waste piles. In some cases, they analyzed drilling cores, both archived cores and recently drilled ones at the mines. The team entered Utah mines to collect rock samples from the underground ramps that connect coal seams.

The study targeted the coal-producing region stretching from Utah’s Wasatch Plateau east across the Book Cliffs deep into Colorado. Researchers analyzed 3,500 samples from 10 mines, four mine waste piles, seven stratigraphically complete cores, and even some coal ash piles near power plants.

The study included Utah’s active Skyline, Gentry, Emery and Sufco mines, recently-idled Dugout and Lila Canyon mines in the Book Cliffs, and the historic Star Point and Beaver Creek No. 8 mines. The Colorado mines studied were the Deserado and West Elk.

Discover more about this groundbreaking research by visiting the full article by Brian Maffly at @The U.

Read more about this story at KUER.

What It Means to Meet a Mathematician

May 21, 2024

What It Means to Meet a Mathematician

May 21, 2024
Photo above: Selvi Kara. Credit: Aaron Windhorst

The importance of representation in a field of study cannot be overstated.

"This is the most meaningful project I’ve ever been involved in," says Dr. Selvi Kara, one of the co-founders of Meet a Mathematician, a growing collection of short video interviews with mathematicians. "Being a part of this project and meeting the amazing mathematicians we interviewed has changed the way I think about the mathematics community."

Meet a Mathematician's goal is to introduce students to role models and encourage their participation in the mathematical sciences. The project also strives to foster a sense of community. By hearing personal stories of mathematicians through short videos, Kara hopes the students, especially from underrepresented groups in STEM and particularly in math, feel a sense of belonging and recognize that there is a place for them in mathematics.

"This project made me feel connected to a community I didn’t know existed before," Kara says. "For people who are watching our interviews, it helps them in ways that are beyond what we could have imagined when we started Meet a Mathematician." Kara launched Meet a Mathematician in March 2020 with Dr. Padi Fuster, an NSF ASCEND Postdoctoral Fellow at the CU Boulder, Mathematics Department and one of her close friends.

Kara is the recipient of the 2023 Distinguished Service Award from the College of Science where, at the time, she was a Science Research Initiative (SRI) postdoctoral fellow at the U. Prior to that, she was a research associate in the Department of Mathematics. Kara received her undergraduate degree in mathematics from Istanbul University, and after graduation, she attended Nesin Mathematics Village every summer until she moved to the U.S. for her PhD at Tulane University.

Kara with her SRI Chip-Firing Stream Students

Nesin Mathematics Village played a crucial role in Kara's growth as a mathematician. "That’s where I learned about various fields of mathematics not covered in my undergraduate math curriculum," says Kara. "It was at the Math Village where I first learned about combinatorial commutative algebra, the field of my research, and I realized that it was the kind of math I imagined myself doing in the future."

“Combinatorial commutative algebra is a field that lies at the intersection of combinatorics and commutative algebra,” Kara says. “I really enjoy working in this field as it allows me to use tools from both disciplines to answer algebraic questions.”

Kara is interested in translating complex algebraic ideas and notions into ones that are more accessible, as well as finding ways to express such concepts using figures. Recently, Kara’s research has expanded towards a new field called algebraic combinatorics, and she works on problems related to chip-firing games and parking functions in this field.

As part of her role as an SRI fellow, Kara led the higher-dimensional chip-firing SRI stream during the Spring-Fall 2023 semesters and mentored eight undergraduates. The students involved in Kara’s SRI stream presented their research at the 2024 Joint Mathematics Meeting in San Francisco in January. Kara continues her research with undergraduate and graduate students at Bryn Mawr College, and she still mentors her students from the U even though she is no longer there.

As a first-generation individual, Kara deeply understands the importance of having role models and mentors, and she will continue her work in Meet a Mathematician. This project is a way for Kara to give back to her community and contribute to a positive change in the culture of mathematics.

 


by CJ Siebeneck

You can read recent research by Selvi Kara here and here. Also, "A Conversation on Meet a Mathematician and Math For All," with Padi Fuster in Practices and Policies: Advocating For Students of Color in Mathematics, 

U of U Part of $6.6M National Weather Forecasting Initiative

May 21, 2024

U of U Included in $6.6M National Weather Forecasting Initiative

The partnership with NOAA, other universities aims to improve predictive weather models

The University of Utah is one of a six-institution consortium recommended to receive up to $6.6 million from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) to improve weather forecasting through enhanced data assimilation methods. 

The new Consortium for Advanced Data Assimilation Research will support six institutions that have been recommended to receive funding and will work together collaboratively under the new Consortium for Advanced Data Assimilation Research and Education (CADRE).  CADRE is led by the University of Oklahoma and includes Colorado State University, Howard University, University of Maryland, Pennsylvania State University and the University of Utah.

Dr. Zhaoxia Pu

"This NOAA funding allows our researchers to collaborate with leading experts across the country to tackle a key challenge in data assimilation methodology," said Atmospheric Sciences Professor Zhaoxia Pu, the Principal Investigator of the University of Utah for CADRE. "By improving data assimilation techniques, we can help make more accurate weather forecasting."

Data assimilation combines observational data sources like satellite, surface, air and ocean measurements with numerical weather prediction models to generate comprehensive analyses of evolving weather systems. This blending of information better estimates the atmospheric states and corrects forecast models in real-time, thus enhancing projections of weather extremes such as storm paths, intensities and precipitation.

Despite major forecasting accuracy improvements in recent decades, upgraded data assimilation methods are needed to leverage new technological capabilities like artificial intelligence. The CADRE consortium will focus its efforts on advancing the data assimilation components of NOAA's Unified Forecast System (UFS), a community-based, coupled, comprehensive Earth-modeling system.

Pu’s team will be focusing their research on the coupled data assimilation efforts to improve weather forecasting from short-range to sub-seasonal to seasonal time scales. Atmospheric processes are significantly influenced by interactions with the land and ocean. Pu’s team will develop effective coupled data assimilation methods to better represent the land-atmosphere-ocean interactions within NOAA's UFS. Pu will also dedicate time to training graduate students through research projects, outreach activities with NOAA Laboratories and the University of Reading, UK, and through on-campus lectures on data assimilation methods. Students from the City College of New York will also participate in training activities.

"Data assimilation is a comprehensive scientific topic involving various types of data, data science and numerical modeling strategies. I welcome interactions and collaborations in atmospheric sciences, mathematics, physics and AI data science disciplines both on campus and beyond," Pu stated.

The $6.6 million will be funded by the Inflation Reduction Act and is part of the Biden Administration's Investing in America initiative. To learn more about this announcement, read the official NOAA release here. 

By Bianca Lyon

Convocation 2024

May 20, 2024

Congratulations 2024 Graduates!

The College of Science 2024 Convocation Ceremonies were held on Thursday, May 2 at the Jon M. Huntsman Center. The ceremony was presided by Dean Peter Trapa and featured comments from Associate Dean Pearl Sandick, chairs and directors of each department and a student speech by physics graduate Dua Ahzar.

 

Dean Peter Trapa Convocation Speech:

Welcome! My name is Peter Trapa, and I am Dean of the College of Science and of the College of Mines and Earth Sciences.  On behalf of the entire merged college community, I welcome you to the 2024 convocation ceremony.

I am so happy to be here with all of you -- graduates, of course, but all those (family, friends, loved ones) who have been with you every step of the way.  Many of you began your college careers during the years of the pandemic, so you know acutely the privilege of celebrating here together, in person. Just take a moment to think about how the last few years have changed you - I hope you look back fondly at favorite lectures, campus events, the friends you’ve made, and how much you’ve learned and grown as a person. You have achieved so much, overcome so much… you are unstoppable!

The twenty-first century will continue to be shaped by scientists, engineers, and mathematicians who first shed light on the pandemic, and whose research in many ways allow us to be here on this dazzling day.  The challenges facing our world will continue to tackle the grand challenges – energy, environment, medicine, health – of the future.

That’s you!  It’s your turn.   The world awaits you -- needs you -- each and every one of you.  Your career, your family, your entire life -- all unspool into an endless frontier of infinite possibility, and it’s your imagination that is the best window into your future. You will take what you learned in the Colleges of Science and Mines and Earth Sciences, the technical and the abstract, what you learned from your friendships and experiences at the U -- you’ll take all of that, and apply it in new ways that none of us, except for you, can imagine.  Embrace the change and opportunities as they come, and seek out new discoveries and challenges.  I’m so excited - and so proud - for all of you.

Remember that you are, and will continue to be, part of our College family. We want to hear about your successes, your new discoveries, your opportunities. Remember that we are here, celebrating with you every step along the way, as you achieve great things.