I am e mailing with some sad news, which may have reached some of you already.  Donald M. Schell, 69, former director of the Alaska Stable Isotope Facility at the University of Alaska Fairbanks, died before Christmas at his home in Australia.  Don was a chemical oceanographer specializing in stable isotopes in oceanographic and biologic systems.  I had the pleasure of interacting with Don during my interview at UAF and subsequently even phoned him for advice once he had left Alaska.  He spent 40-plus years in Alaska and handed over a state of the art isotope lab when he retired in 2002.  We proudly maintain this lab and think of Don -  he was a real character.  A rich, colorful and detailed obituary can be found at: