Sorry Mr. Mayor, I'm not quite done speaking

I had the pleasure of speaking in the Philadelphia city hall today, right before the mayor.  It was a meeting of the Philadelphia Workforce Investment Board (WIB) and Mayor Nutter and I were both there to speak.  Each state has a WIB and they exist to direct funding to a variety of workforce development programs.  For example, during today's meeting there was a vote to fund a program that prepares young people to enter the workforce.  My talk was on my work with the Greater Philadelphia Innovation Cluster for Energy Efficient Buildings and it potential impact on the workforce in the region.  His talk was about a meeting at the White House, his role as Vice President for the Council of Mayors, and issues that effect Philadelphia and the country as a whole.

Philadelphia's city hall is simply spectacular, completed in 1901 it is the second tallest masonry building in the world.  It has 700 rooms and is the largest municipal building in the US.  The room we were in, Conversation Hall, had a spectacular chandelier and ceiling and while the acoustics were not ideal, the room was truly beautiful.

I talked for about 15 minutes on the GPIC HUB and gave an overview of our strategy to educate and create jobs around making commercial buildings more energy efficient.  Our initial work centers around a 3-tiered auditing system that will identify the buildings best suited for an integrated energy efficient retrofit, determine the energy savings costs and the return-on-investment time, and aid in identifying the best path for financing the project.

Mayor Nutter opened his talk by remarking that at his first event he had spoken after a biologist and didn't understand everything she said.  Now, at his second event, he was speaking after a physicist and didn't understand anything I said! (Big laugh)  He then talked about his work with the Council of Mayors, his meeting with Vice President Biden and how the budget fights in Washington, DC were targeting workforce programs.  He's a riveting speaking, dynamic yet personal and he gave a powerful presentation.

At the end of the meeting, I took off my GPIC hat, drove back to Princeton to put on my PPPL hat, and went to work on plasmas and to get ready for our microgravity flight.  It was a good day.