The Emmert Watch column usually runs Mondays but is running today due to the holiday.

Concluding a monumental two weeks, UW President Mark Emmert announced the tentative formation of a public health institute at the UW and the potential faculty recruitment of prominent Harvard University professor Christopher Murray to head it.

"It is still in flux and not done yet," Emmert said. "But it looks and feels promising."

Starting his schedule in Maui, Hawaii Feb. 5, Emmert met with about 80 UW alumni and friends to raise donations for the UW.

"I spent the evening telling them about development at the UW, and answering their questions," he said.

Emmert also later met with alumni in private meetings to "further increase the attachment of the donors to UW."

After returning to Seattle Feb. 8, the following day Emmert spoke at the annual Visiting Committee and Advisory luncheon. Held in the HUB ballroom, this event honors the nearly 600 private volunteers who advise various colleges, departments and programs at the UW.

"The Visiting Committees are usually made up ... of citizens who are experts in their professional fields," he said.

On the following Sunday, Emmert juggled an agenda that led him from attending a basketball game at Hec Edmonson Pavillion to hosting a reception at the President's house.

After recording the monthly video message to UW students, Emmert held a pregame event with guests and subsequently attended the men's basketball game against Stanford University.

Immediately afterward, Emmert hosted Seattle business and civic leaders who had previously been involved with the UW program Ideas to Innovations.

"This dinner and discussions at the president's house were focused on what more we can do to build collaborations around global health," he said. "We are working to find the best ways to work together."

Reverting once more to his travel-intensive schedule, on Feb. 6 Emmert commuted from Seattle to Olympia to attend various meetings.

Beginning with cabinet meetings at the UW early in the morning, Emmert then attended the Greater Seattle Chamber of Commerce board meeting. Following the adjournment of this meeting, Emmert then returned once more to the UW to speak before the 100 faculty members who have been nominated for the Distinguished Staff Award.

"I love meeting with our faculty and staff to celebrate their accomplishments," he said. "It was great fun to be with them."

With one event left on his schedule, Emmert drove to Olympia to meet with WSU President V. Lane Rawlins and his successor Elson Floyd.

On Friday, Emmert reunited with Rawlins to speak at the Bellevue Rotary Club breakfast meeting.

"President Rawlins and I talked about how important our two universities are to the state," he said. "And the need we have for greater state funding to support our students and professors."

As he faces yet another travel-intensive schedule during the next two weeks, Emmert has many short-term goals he hopes to accomplish.

Traveling to Arizona and Southern California, Emmert will be making donor calls and participating in fundraising activities to increase funds for the UW.

He also hopes to finalize the creation of the global health institute and recruitment of Murray. However, the most notable among Emmert's short-term goals is fulfillment of the Neptune Project.

Under discussion for nearly 10 years with the National Science Foundation and Canadian government, Emmert is optimistic that funding for the project will finally be secured.

"This project was created by UW professor John Delaney," he said. "The idea is to basically lay a fiber-optic grid under the ocean that would allow students and faculty to watch changes [in] real time."

Reach reporter Nathan Lee at news@thedaily.washington.edu.