URI Oceanographer appointed as
National Science
Foundation division director for ocean
sciences
Narragansett, RI --September 18, 2001
-- The
National
Science Foundation (NSF) has announced
the appointment of biological
oceanographer
James
A. Yoder of the University of Rhode
Island as Division Director for Ocean
Sciences. He is scheduled to assume his
new position on October 1, 2001.
As head of NSF’s Ocean Sciences
Division, Yoder will manage a budget of
approximately $270 million annually. His
responsibilities include coordinating
research in all disciplines of
oceanography: biological, physical,
chemical, and geological. In addition, his
office provides support for technology and
instrument development and support for
ship operations to undertake the
oceanographic field studies funded by NSF.
The division also provides assistance for
the Ocean Drilling Program, an
international program of scientific
drilling in the oceans.
At the University of Rhode Island, Yoder
served as Interim Dean of the Graduate
School of Oceanography (GSO) for 18 months
after Dr. Margaret Leinen left in January
2000 to become NSF’s Assistant
Director for Geosciences. He also served
as GSO’s Associate Dean from 1993 to
1998.
Yoder spent 1996 in Washington, DC, on
leave from GSO to manage NASA’s
Biological Oceanography Program in the
Office of Mission to Planet Earth. During
that time he supervised grant award
procedures to universities and NASA
centers related to ocean remote sensing in
biological oceanography. He also
represented NASA at meetings and workshops
nationally and internationally.
Yoder is a well-known researcher in
biological oceanography. As a research
scientist, he uses satellite sensors to
study the relation between physical and
biological processes in ocean margin and
open ocean waters. He led a group of
researchers who made headlines in 1994 by
discovering the cause of "a line in the
sea" across part of the Pacific Ocean
where microscopic plants grow between two
currents.
Yoder received his B.A. degree (1970) in
botany from DePauw University of Indiana
and his M.S. (1974) and Ph.D. (1979) in
oceanography from the University of Rhode
Island. He has participated extensively on
national and international committees and
panels, including membership on the
Consortium for Oceanographic Research
(CORE) Board of Governors, the U.S. Carbon
and Climate Committee, and Chair of the
International Joint Global Ocean Flux
Study Task Team on Remote Sensing. In
2000, Yoder began serving as president of
The Oceanography Society.
NSF, an independent federal agency created
by the National Science Foundation Act of
1950, promotes and advances scientific
progress in the United States. It funds
research and education in science and
engineering through grants, contracts, and
cooperative agreements to more than 2,000
colleges, universities, and other research
institutions in all parts of the United
States.
The URI Graduate School of Oceanography is
one of the country's largest marine
science education programs, and one of the
world's foremost marine research
institutions. Founded in 1961 in
Narragansett, RI, GSO serves a community
of scientists who are researching the
causes of and solutions to such problems
as acid rain, global warming, air and
water pollution, oil spills, overfishing,
and coastal erosion. GSO is home to the
Coastal Institute on Narragansett Bay, the
Coastal Resources Center, Rhode Island Sea
Grant, and the National Sea Grant
Library.
Contact: Lisa Cugini, (401) 874-6642,
lcugini@gso.uri.edu
Back to
GSO
News.
|
