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Science Advisory Panel Members' Biographies

The composition of the Science Advisory Panel was determined by the Commissioners with advice from the National Academy of Sciences and reflects the breadth of issues before the Commission and the Working Group structure adopted at the Commission’s first meeting. Below are short biographies of each panel member.

Donald F. Boesch, Ph.D.
Ken Brink, Ph.D.
Daniel W. Bromley, Ph.D.
Otis Brown, Ph.D.
Biliana Cicin-Sain, Ph.D.
Robert A. Frosch, Ph.D.
Robert B. Gagosian, Ph.D.
J. Frederick Grassle, Ph.D.
D. Jay Grimes, Ph.D.
Susan Hanna, Ph.D.
Ray Hilborn, Ph.D.
DeWitt John, Ph.D.
Geraldine Knatz, Ph.D.
Marcia McNutt, Ph.D.
Jacqueline Michel, Ph.D.
Edward L. Miles, Ph.D.
Michael K. Orbach, Ph.D.
John A. Orcutt, Ph.D.
Shirley Pomponi, Ph.D.
David B. Prior, Ph.D.
Andrew R. Solow, Ph.D.
Robert Spindel, Ph.D.
Carolyn A. Thoroughgood, Ph.D.
Sharon Walker, Ph.D.
Warren M. Washington, Ph.D.
Robert M. White, D.Sc.



Donald F. Boesch, Ph.D.

Dr. Boesch is a Professor in and President of the University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science, one of the 13 constituent institutions of the University System of Maryland. A biological oceanographer he has conduced research in coastal and continental shelf environments along the Atlantic Coast, and in the Gulf of Mexico, eastern Australia and the East China Sea and published extensively on marine benthos, estuaries, wetlands, continental shelf ecology, marine pollution, consequences of climate change, environmental assessment and monitoring, and science policy. Dr. Boesch has chaired scientific advisory committees for many federal agencies, including the National Science Foundation. Environmental Protection Agency and the Department of the Interior, and served on both the Marine Board and Ocean Studies Board of the National Research Council. He chaired three NRC committees that produced reports on marine environmental monitoring, coastal science priorities, and the use of science in coastal decisionmaking.

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Ken Brink, Ph.D.

Dr. Brink is a Senior Scientist and Director of the Coastal Ocean Institute and Rinehart Coastal Research Center at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution. He is a physical oceanographer who specializes in currents over the continental shelf and the effects of wind on the ocean. He has carried out observational work offshore of Peru, California, Massachusetts and Oman, among other places. Throughout his career, he has been involved in interdisciplinary research, especially with regard to how currents affect ocean biology. He was educated at Cornell (B.S) and Yale (Ph.D.). He recently served as Chair of the National Academy of Science's Ocean Studies Board (1996-2001), he is currently Past President of the Oceanography Society, and he serves on several scientific editorial boards.

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Daniel W. Bromley, Ph.D.

Dr. Bromley is Anderson-Bascom Professor of applied economics at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. He recently served on the Ocean Studies Board of the National Research Council (NRC), National Academy of Sciences. He is currently on an NRC committee concerned with Alaskan fisheries and the Steller Sea Lion. Professor Bromley has published extensively on concepts of property rights and the economics of natural resources. He has edited the journal Land Economics since 1974. He has been a consultant to, among others, the Global Environment Facility; the World Bank; the Asian Development Bank; and the Ministry for the Environment in New Zealand. Professor Bromley has written and edited eleven books, the most recent of which are: (1) Economic Interests and Institutions: The Conceptual Foundations of Public Policy; (2) Environment and Economy: Property Rights and Public Policy; (3) Making the Commons Work; (4) The Handbook of Environmental Economics; and (5) Economics, Ethics, and Environmental Policy. He is now writing Sufficient Reason: A Theory of Economic Institutions.

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Otis Brown, Ph.D.

Dr. Brown is Dean of the Rosenstiel School of Marine and Atmospheric Science, University of Miami and a professor in the Division of Meteorology and Physical Oceanography. He is one of the world's foremost experts in studying the ocean through observations obtained from instruments aboard earth-orbiting satellites. He has over 100 scientific publications and has received national recognition from notable scientific organizations such as NASA, the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the American Meteorological Society and the American Geophysical Union. As a member of the NOAA's Science Advisory Board, the University Corporation for Atmospheric Research Board of Trustees, the Southeastern Universities Research Association Board of Trustees, the National Oceanographic Partnership Program's Ocean Research Advisory Panel and other high-level scientific steering committees, he has and continues to play an important role in leading our nation's ocean research program.

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Biliana Cicin-Sain, Ph.D.

Dr. Cicin-Sain is Director of the Center for the Study of Marine Policy and Professor of Marine Policy at the University of Delaware, and Editor-in-Chief of the international journal Ocean & Coastal Management. She is a founder of the Marine Affairs and Policy Association and the Ocean Governance Study Group. Internationally, Dr. Cicin-Sain has been a pioneer in the forging of cross-national collaboration in marine policy. She has served as a consultant to the UN's Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission, World Bank, UN Environment Programme, InterAmerican Development Bank, Canada's Department of Fisheries and Oceans, and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. She organized the global oceans conference held in Paris in December 2001. Dr. Cicin-Sain has served as an advisor on several boards of the National Research Council, the Department of the Interior's Outer Continental Shelf Science Committee, and the Board of Directors of the Pan American Marine Biotechnology Association. She has published numerous articles and books on ocean and marine policy and governance.

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Robert A. Frosch, Ph.D.

Dr. Frosch received his Ph.D. in physics from Columbia University in 1952. From 1951-1963, he conducted research on ocean acoustics and was then Director of Hudson Laboratories (Columbia University). From 1963 to 1966 he was Director for Nuclear Test Detection, then Deputy Director of the Defense Department's Advanced Research Projects Agency (ARPA). From 1966-1973 he was Assistant Secretary of the Navy (Research and Development). In 1973 he became Assistant Executive Director of the UN Environment Programme (UNEP). In 1975 he became Associate Director for Applied Oceanography at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI). From 1977-1981 he was Administrator of NASA. In 1981 he became President of the American Association of Engineering Societies (AAES). In 1982 he became Vice President of the General Motors Corporation (GM) in charge of Research Laboratories. In 1993 he retired from GM and joined the John F. Kennedy School of Government of Harvard University. Dr. Frosch is a member of Phi Beta Kappa and Sigma Xi, the National Academy of Engineering (NAE), the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, a Foreign Member of the Royal Academy of Engineering (UK).

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Robert B. Gagosian, Ph.D.

Dr. Gagosian is Director and President of the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI). After spending his undergraduate years at MIT, he earned a Ph.D. in organic chemistry from Columbia University in 1970 and held a National Institutes of Health postdoctoral fellowship at the University of California, Berkeley, from 1970 to 1972. He came to WHOI in 1972 as an Assistant Scientist and was appointed Chair of the Chemistry Department in 1982. He became Associate Director for Research in 1987 and Senior Associate Director in 1992. He was appointed Director in 1994 and Director and President in 2001. His research, largely on marine geochemistry of biologically produced organic compounds with emphasis on the transport processes, has resulted in more than 80 scientific papers. He has served on several National Science Foundation and Office of Naval Research advisory committees, has been active in the Geochemical Society, and has worked on the Louisiana Board of Regents, Natural Environmental Research Council, Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board, North Atlantic Treaty Organization, and National Academy of Sciences.

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J. Frederick Grassle, Ph.D.

Dr. Grassle is Director of the Institute of Marine and Coastal Sciences at Rutgers University (IMCS). The Institute serves as the focal point for the State's education and research efforts in estuarine, coastal, and open ocean environments and is responsible for development of marine and coastal science programs on all three Rutgers campuses. Formerly a Senior Scientist at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, he is an authority on life on the sea floor. He has served as chief scientist on numerous cruises involving more than a dozen different research vessels. He led the first biological expedition to deep-sea hydrothermal vents in the eastern Pacific. He is also known for his research on marine biodiversity, studies of fate and effects of contaminants in the ocean, and development of ocean observing systems.

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D. Jay Grimes, Ph.D.

Dr. Grimes is the Dean of the College of Marine Sciences and Director of the Gulf Coast Research Laboratory at the University of Southern Mississippi. His research interests include the microbiology of waste disposal, environmental contaminants, water resources and waterborne diseases. Dr. Grimes is a AAAS Fellow and a Fellow of the American Academy of Microbiology. He serves on the Ocean Studies Board and is Vice Chair of the Board of Governors for the Consortium for Oceanographic Research and Education, Communications Chair for the American Society for Microbiology, and President of the U.S. Federation of Culture Collections. Dr. Grimes received his Ph.D. in microbiology from Colorado State University in 1971.

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Susan Hanna, Ph.D.

Dr. Hanna is professor of marine economics at Oregon State University, affiliated with Oregon Sea Grant and with the Coastal Oregon Marine Experiment Station. Her research and publications are in the areas of fishery economics, fishery management, history of fishery policy and property rights. She has served as a scientific advisor to the Pacific Fishery Management Council, Northwest Power Planning Council, National Marine Fisheries Service, Minerals Management Service and National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. She has been a member of the National Research Council's Ocean Studies Board and several NRC Committees, including the Committee to assess Pacific Northwest salmonids and the committee to Review Individual Quotas in Fisheries. Hanna is president of the International Association for the Study of Common Property and a member of the Executive Committee of the International Institute of Fisheries Economics and Trade.

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Ray Hilborn, Ph.D.

Dr. Hilborn is the Richard C. and Lois M. Worthington Professor of fisheries management in the School of Aquatic and Fishery Sciences, University of Washington. His areas of research are fisheries population dynamics and management and natural resource conservation, and he has worked extensively on the fishery resources of the west coast of the U.S. and Canada and New Zealand and Australia. He currently serves on the Independent Advisory Panel for the Commission for the Conservation of Southern Bluefin Tuna and has worked with a number of other national and international fisheries management organizations. He is the author or co-author of 5 books and monographs on natural resource management, as well as 100 articles.


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DeWitt John, Ph.D.

Dr. John is Director of the Environmental Studies Program at Bowdoin College, Brunswick, Maine. He is the author of four books, including Civic Environmentalism (1992). Before moving to Bowdoin, he was project director for a series of reports prepared by the National Academy of Public Administration for Congress about EPA, states and new approaches to environmental regulation, including Environment.gov: Transforming Environmental Protection for the 21st Century (2000), as well as a study of management and community involvement at national marine sanctuaries. He has worked for the states of Massachusetts and Colorado and for the Aspen Institute. He has a Ph.D. in political science from the University of Chicago and is a Fellow of the National Academy of Public Administration.

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Geraldine Knatz, Ph.D.

Dr. Knatz is the managing director of development for the Port of Long Beach, California, a position she has held since March 1999 after serving 11 years as the port's planning director. Dr. Knatz oversees the port's engineering, properties, and planning divisions and is responsible for the port's $1.9 billion capital improvement program. Dr. Knatz chairs the National Sea Grant Review Panel and serves on the National Academy of Sciences' committee to review methods of analysis and peer review used by the Army Corps of Engineers, and the National Academy of Sciences' Marine Board. She is active in the American Association of Port Authorities and is a past chair of its Harbors and Navigation Committee. In 1997, she was named to represent the International Association of Ports & Harbors on an international treaty body know as the London Convention which regulates international ocean dumping practices. Dr. Knatz has a Ph.D. in biological sciences and a master's in environmental engineering from the University of Southern California.

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Marcia McNutt, Ph.D.

Dr. McNutt is the President and CEO of the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute (MBARI) in Moss Landing, California. She graduated class valedictorian from Northrop Collegiate School in 1970. In 1973, she received a BA degree in Physics, summa cum laude, Phi Beta Kappa, from Colorado College in Colorado Springs. As a National Science Foundation Graduate Fellow, she studied geophysics at Scripps Institution of Oceanography in La Jolla, California, where she earned a PhD in Earth Sciences in 1978. After a brief appointment at the University of Minnesota and three years at the US Geological Survey in Menlo Park, California, she joined the faculty at MIT in Cambridge, Massachusetts, in 1982. At MIT, she was appointed the Griswold Professor of Geophysics and served as Director of the Joint Program in Oceanography and Applied Ocean Science and Engineering, a cooperative graduate educational program between MIT and the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution. In 1988, she won the Macelwane Award from the American Geophysical Union, presented for outstanding research by a young scientist. In 1997, she took over the leadership at MBARI.

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Jacqueline Michel, Ph.D.

Dr. Michel is President of Research Planning, Inc. in Columbia, SC. She received a Ph.D. in Geology from the University of South Carolina in 1980. Dr. Michel is an internationally recognized expert in oil and hazardous materials spill planning and response in the areas of sensitivity mapping, oil fates and effects, non-floating oils, shoreline cleanup, alternative response technologies, and natural resource damage assessment. Since 1978, she has been part of the Scientific Support Team to the U.S. Coast Guard provided by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. In 1995, she was asked by the World Bank to develop an emergency oil spill cleanup plan in the Former Soviet Union, to prevent the release of massive amounts of oil into rivers draining to the Arctic Ocean. Dr. Michel currently serves on two National Research Council committees: Spills of Emulsified Fuels: Risks and Response; and The Oil in the Sea Update.

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Edward L. Miles, Ph.D.

Dr. Miles is the Virginia and Prentice M. Bloedel Professor of Marine Studies and Public Affairs at the University of Washington where he teaches international science and technology policy and marine policy. He was Director of the School of Marine Affairs at the University from 1982-1993. Dr. Miles works primarily on problems of international science and technology policy, management of world fisheries, nuclear waste disposal, the law of the sea, comparative national marine policy, and global climate change. He has served as chairman of the Ocean Policy Committee, National Research Council; Joint Appointee and Chief Negotiator, Micronesian Maritime Authority; chairman, Advisory Group on the International Implications of Disposal of High-Level Radioactive Waste into the Seabed, Nuclear Energy Agency; Chairman, Advisory Committee on International Programs, National Science Foundation; member, Advisory Committee on Social, Behavioral, and Economic Sciences, National Science Foundation; and lead author, Marine Policy, Working Group II-B of the Inter- governmental Panel on Climate Change. He received his Ph.D. from the University of Denver in 1965.

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Michael K. Orbach, Ph.D.

Dr. Orbach is Professor of Marine Affairs and Policy and Director of the Duke University Marine Laboratory and the Coastal Environmental Management Program in the Nicholas School of the Environment and Earth Sciences at Duke University. His BA is in Economics from the University of California at Irvine, and his MA and PhD are in Cultural Anthropology from the University of California at San Diego. Dr. Orbach has performed research and has been involved in coastal and marine policy on all coasts of the U.S. and in Mexico, Central America, the Caribbean, Alaska and the Pacific, and has published widely on social science and policy in coastal and marine environments. He has served as a member of the North Carolina Marine Fisheries Commission; Chair of the North Carolina Ocean Affairs Council; member of the Ocean Studies Board of the National Research Council and several NRC committees; and as President of The Coastal Society.

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John A. Orcutt, Ph.D.

Dr. Orcutt is the Director of the Cecil & Ida Green Institute of Geophysics & Planetary Physics at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography. He is a 1966 graduate of the U.S. Naval Academy and received his M.Sc. in physics as a Fulbright Scholar at the University of Liverpool. He served as a submariner and advanced to the rank of Commander. He received his PhD in Earth Sciences from Scripps in 1976. He has published more than 140 scientific papers and received the Ewing Medal from the USN and the American Geophysical Union (AGU) in 1994. He is a Secretary of the Navy/Chief of Naval Operations Oceanography Chair. He is President-Elect of the AGU in 2002-2004 and President in 2004-2006.

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Shirley Pomponi, Ph.D.

Dr. Pomponi is the Vice President and Director of Research at Harbor Branch Oceanographic Institution. Her research interests are the discovery of marine-derived compounds with therapeutic potential, and the development of methods for sustainable use of marine resources for drug discovery and development. She received her Ph.D. in Biological Oceanography from the University of Miami and has authored or co-authored more than 70 publications in marine biotechnology, biodiversity, cell and molecular biology, systematics and natural products chemistry. Dr. Pomponi has led numerous research expeditions world-wide. She is an adjunct faculty member at Florida Atlantic University, Florida Institute of Technology, and the University of Florida. She recently served on the President's Ocean Exploration Panel, and was a member of the National Research Council's (NRC) Committees on the Ocean's Role in Human Health, and Marine Biotechnology. She currently serves on the NRC's Committee on Exploration of the Seas.

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David B. Prior, Ph.D.

Dr. Prior is the Provost and Executive Vice President of Texas A&M University. He received his Ph.D. in geomorphology from the Queen's University of Belfast, Northern Ireland in 1968. His expertise and interests are in marine geological hazards, sea floor engineering geology, coastal zone management, deltaic sedimentation and deep water slope processes. Dr. Prior has authored 81 peer-reviewed journal articles and has edited 3 books and 22 chapters in books. In 2001 he was elected President of the Council of Environmental Deans and Directors. He has served on numerous national and international advisory committees and councils and in 1996 was elected as a lifetime Honorary Advisor to the Coordinating Committee for Coastal and Offshore Geosciences Programs for East and Southeast Asia which he chaired in 2000.

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Andrew R. Solow, Ph.D.

Dr. Solow is a member of the Scientific Staff and Director of the Marine Policy Center at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution. He received his BA from Harvard College and his PhD from Stanford University. His research interests are in environmental and ecological statistics and he has worked on problems connected to climate and to the dynamics of marine and terrestrial populations. Solow has served on the editorial boards of Ecology, Environmental and Ecological Statistics, and the Journal of Environmental Economics and Management. He is a former member of the Office of Science and Technology Policy Hypoxia Working Group and the National Research Council Commission on Geosciences, Environment, and Resources.

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Robert Spindel, Ph.D.

Dr. Spindel is the Director of the Applied Physics Laboratory of the University of Washington. He received his Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering from Yale University in 1971. During 1971 he was a Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution. In 1972 he joined the Scientific Staff of the Institution in the Department of Ocean Engineering and was appointed Chairman of the Department in 1982. He served in that capacity until 1987 when he joined the University of Washington as Director of the Applied Physics Laboratory. His research specialty is underwater acoustics. Dr. Spindel was awarded the A.B. Wood Medal by the British Institute of Acoustics in 1981, the Gano Dunn Award from The Cooper Union in 1988, the IEEE Oceanic Engineering Society's Technical Achievement Award in 1990 and the Walter Munk Award by the Secretary of the Navy and the Oceanography Society in 2001. He is a Fellow of the IEEE, the Acoustical Society of America, and the Marine Technology Society. He served as President of the latter organization from 1993-1995. He is presently a member of the Navy's Naval Research Advisory Committee.

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Carolyn A. Thoroughgood, Ph.D.

Dr. Thoroughgood is Dean of the College of Marine Studies and Director of the Sea Grant College Program at the University of Delaware. She is currently Acting President of the Consortium for Oceanographic Research and Education (CORE), as well as the current Chair of the Board of Governors. Dr. Thoroughgood joined the University of Delaware faculty in 1968 as a nutritional biochemist. Her research interests led her to the Delaware Sea Grant College Program where she became involved in the study of nutritional needs of bivalves reared in closed environment systems. She held several administrative positions including Associate Dean of the College of Marine Studies and Executive Director of Delaware Sea Grant prior to her assuming her current positions in 1985. Dr. Thoroughgood was one of the organizers and officers of the Council on Ocean Affairs, a national organization of marine academic institutions and the predecessor to CORE. She served as CORE's first Chair of the Board of Governors and was re-elected to that post in March, 2001. She is an active member of several professional societies and organizations and serves on numerous University councils and committees.

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Sharon Walker, Ph.D.

Dr. Walker is a nationally recognized expert on K-12 marine education issues. She is a past president of the National Marine Educators Association and the current Educational Chair for the Marine Technology Society. The Administrator of the J.L. Scott Marine Education Center and Aquarium in Biloxi, Mississippi, Dr. Walker also is the Associate Dean for Outreach for the University of Southern Mississippi’s College of Marine Sciences. In addition, Dr. Walker is the Director of Education for the Mississippi-Alabama Sea Grant Consortium. Dr. Walker received her Ph.D. in Science Education from the University of Southern Mississippi and a Master of Science degree in Marine Science from Louisiana State University. Dr. Walker has made numerous significant contributions to the areas of ocean science education, authored many publications on a wide array of ocean issues, and given numerous formal and informal presentations on marine science education to a variety of audiences focusing on pre-college teachers and student involvement.

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Warren M. Washington, Ph.D.

Dr. Washington is a senior scientist and head of the Climate Change Research Section in the Climate and Global Dynamics Division at the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) in Boulder, Colorado. He earned his Ph.D. in meteorology from Pennsylvania State University and shortly thereafter joined NCAR in 1963 as a research scientist. His areas of expertise are atmospheric science and climate research, and he specializes in computer modeling of the earth's climate. Dr. Washington has published more than 100 papers in professional journal, and his book An Introduction to Three-Dimensional Climate Modeling, Co-authored with Claire Parkinson (NASA), is a reference on climate modeling. Dr. Washington is consultant and advisor to a number of federal government officials and committees on climate-system modeling. He has served on the Secretary of Energy's Biological and Environmental Research Advisory Committee (BERAC) since 1990. In 1999, he was elected by the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution Board of Trustees as a Member of the Corporation for a three-year term. In April 2000, the Secretary of Energy appointed him to the Advanced Scientific Computing Advisory Committee.


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Robert M. White, D.Sc.

Dr. White is a Principal with the Washington Advisory Group where he consults on a range of environmental issues. He was President of the National Academy of Engineering from 1983 to 1995. Prior to that he was President of the University Corporation for Atmospheric Research. He has served in various scientific leadership positions under five U.S. Presidents. He was Chief of the U.S. Weather Bureau before being appointed the first Administrator of National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. He is a senior fellow at UCAR and at the H. John Heinz III Center for Science, Economics, and the Environment. Dr. White has received many awards including the Vannevar Bush award, the Tyler Prize for Environmental Achievement and the Charles E. Lindbergh Award for Technology and Environment. He holds numerous honorary degrees from universities around the world. He received his D.Sc.in meteorology from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1950.


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