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Dr. Goldstein appointed to advisory group that will lead national academy of sciences' new Gulf of Mexico Program


EMBARGOED FOR RELEASE AT 11:00 AM (ET) ON FRIDAY, JUNE 7, 2013

Advisory Group Appointed to Lead National Academy of Sciences' New Gulf of Mexico Program

WASHINGTON -- The National Academy of Sciences' Gulf of Mexico program has appointed an advisory group to create a strategic vision and guide the program's development and implementation. Serving for one year, the advisory group will articulate the program's mission, goals, and objectives -- including preliminary thinking about metrics to measure its impacts -- and outline how the program will operate in the first three to five years.

The 24-member group draws on the science, engineering, and health expertise of the National Academy of Sciences, National Academy of Engineering, Institute of Medicine, and National Research Council. Chaired by outgoing NAS Vice President Barbara A. Schaal, dean of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences at Washington University in St. Louis, the group includes people with experiences in academia and industry, as well as people with deep connections to the Gulf region.

"The advisory group brings distinction, expertise from diverse disciplines, and a wide range of experience to the task of defining the program," said NAS President Ralph J. Cicerone. "With Dr. Schaal's leadership and her familiarity with the National Academy of Sciences and its values, we're confident that the program's design will be based on scientific merit and integrity."

The $500 million, 30-year program was established as part of the settlements of federal criminal complaints against British Petroleum and Transocean Ltd. following the 2010 Deepwater Horizon explosion, which resulted in 11 deaths, 17 injuries, and the largest oil spill in U.S. history. The program will focus on human health, environmental protection, and oil system safety in the Gulf of Mexico and the United States' Outer Continental Shelf, and will fund and carry out studies, projects, and activities in research and development, education and training, and environmental monitoring.

To identify broad opportunities in these areas that best meet the program's charge, the advisory group will work to understand what other organizations and agencies are doing in the Gulf region. As part of its information gathering activities, the group will conduct a series of in-person and virtual meetings in Alabama, Florida, Louisiana, Mississippi, Texas, and Washington, D.C. to identify how the NAS program can make useful and lasting contributions.

The program will be run under the auspices of the National Research Council, the principal operating arm of the NAS and NAE. Together with the IOM, these private, nonprofit institutions provide science, technology, and health policy advice under a congressional charter granted to NAS in 1863. Chris Elfring is the director of the Gulf program at the National Research Council.

Advisory group members and their affiliations at the time of appointment are:

Barbara A. Schaal, Chair (NAS)
Dean, Faculty of Arts and Sciences, and Mary-Dell Chilton Distinguished Professor Washington University St. Louis

Donald F. Boesch
Professor of Marine Science and President University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science Cambridge

Robert S. Carney
Professor
Louisiana State University
Baton Rouge

Stephen R. Carpenter (NAS)
S.A. Forbes Professor of Zoology
University of Wisconsin
Madison

Cortis K. Cooper
Chevron Fellow
Chevron Corp.
San Ramon, Calif.

Courtney Cowart
Associate Dean, School of Theology
Sewanee: The University of the South
Sewanee, Tenn.

Robert A. Duce
Distinguished Professor
Texas A&M University
College Station

Deborah L. Estrin (NAE)
Professor of Computer Science
Cornell Tech
New York City

Christopher B. Field (NAS)
Director, Department of Global Ecology
Carnegie Institution for Science
Stanford, Calif.

Gerardo Gold-Bouchot
Professor
Center for Research and Advanced Studies Mérida, Mexico

Lynn R. Goldman (IOM)
Dean, School of Public Health and Health Services George Washington University Washington, D.C.

Bernard D. Goldstein (IOM)
Professor Emeritus, Department of Environmental and Occupational Health University of Pittsburgh Graduate School of Public Health Pittsburgh

Thomas O. Hunter
Sandia National Laboratories (retired)
Albuquerque, N.M.

Shirley Ann Jackson (NAE)
President
Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute
Troy, N.Y.

Ashanti Johnson
Associate Research Professor
University of Texas, Arlington, and
Executive Director
Institute for Broadening Participation
Damariscotta, Maine

David M. Karl (NAS)
Professor of Oceanography
University of Hawaii
Honolulu

Molly McCammon
Executive Director
Alaska Ocean Observing System
Anchorage

Linda A. McCauley (IOM)
Dean
Emory University
Atlanta

J. Steven Picou
Professor of Sociology
University of South Alabama
Mobile

Eduardo Salas
Professor of Psychology
University of Central Florida
Orlando

Kerry Michael St. Pé
Executive Director
Barataria-Terrebonne National Estuary Program Thibodaux, La.

Arnold F. Stancell (NAE)
Mobil Oil (retired)
Greenwich, Conn.

LaDon Swann
Director of Marine Programs
Auburn University
Ocean Springs, Miss.

James W. Ziglar
Senior Counsel
Van Ness Feldman
Washington, D.C.

Mark D. Zoback (NAE)
Benjamin M. Page Professor, Department of Geophysics Stanford University Stanford, Calif.

For more information, and to register to receive updates on the work of the program, including upcoming meetings, please visit www.nas.edu/gulfprogram.

6/07/2013

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