GOOS News Flash # 27

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Past GOOS Newsletter

New Director of the GOOS Project Office

Dear Colleagues:

I am very pleased to inform you that on 8 June we finalized the process to appoint the new Head of the Operational Observing Systems Section of IOC (IOC/OOS) that serves as the Head of the GOOS Project Office.

Dr Keith Alverson has finally accepted the job offer made to him by the Director General and will be joining officially the Staff of IOC in Paris on 1 August 2004. Keith will be available during the first week of the Executive Council, so he can participate in the discussions and meet the relevant members of the community that will be closely working with him.

Keith holds a B.S.E. from University of Princeton (USA) and a Ph.D in Physical Oceanography from MIT and Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (Mass., USA). Author of several (21) scientific papers in his field, he has developed  an outstanding career in international science, becoming first Science Officer, and subsequently Acting Director (1997-2000) and Executive Director (2000-2002) of the International Project Office of PAGES: The Past Global Changes Project of the IGBP. In this capacity he has been responsible for facilitating international and interdisciplinary cooperation in paleo-environmental research. He has managed to finance the PAGES-IPO operation through grants from US and Swiss NSF's. In this job he has developed close links with the major International Scientific Programs, specially with IGBP, WCRP and START (the Global Change system for Analysis, Research and Training). He is currently Ocean Editor of "EOS" the widest circulation magazine of geo-sciences (39.000). A former Princeton-in-Asia-Fellow is fluent in Mandarin Chinese (spent 1988 teaching in Nanjing). He is also fluent in German and is knowledgeable of French.

Keith is accompanied by her wife Min KU and his two sons Maximiliane and Alexander.

Patricio A. Bernal
Executive Secretary IOC