GLIN==> Sea Grant News: NOAA Names Leon Cammen Director of National Sea Grant College Program

[Irene Miles <miles@uiuc.edu>]

Contact: Jana
Goldman                                          
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
(301)
585-3607                                                        
August 17, 2006
 

NOAA Names Leon Cammen Director of National Sea Grant
College Program
 
Leon Cammen of Silver Spring, Md. was named as the director of NOAA?s
National Sea Grant College Program. NOAA?s National Sea Grant College
Program works closely with the 30 state Sea Grant programs located in
every coastal and Great Lakes state and Puerto Rico, in addition to
international programs in Indonesia, Korea, and South America.
 
?Dr. Cammen brings experience and vision to lead the National Sea Grant
Program as it continues to provide quality research and services to
coastal communities,? said retired Navy Vice Adm. Conrad C. Lautenbacher,
Ph.D., undersecretary of commerce for oceans and atmosphere and NOAA
administrator. ?With more people living along the coasts, the work done
by Sea Grant is more important than ever as it helps NOAA complete its
mission.?
 
NOAA?s National Sea Grant College Program is located in Silver Spring,
Md.  The 30 programs are the core of a national university-based
network of over 300 institutions involving more than 3,000 scientists,
engineers, educators, students and outreach experts. This network works
on a variety of topics vital to human and environmental health, such as
water quality, coastal hazards and biotechnology. It is part of NOAA?s
Office of Oceanic and Atmospheric Research (OAR).
 
?Sea Grant?s ability to engage this network of the nation?s top
universities in conducting scientific research, education, training, and
extension projects to benefit our coastal communities enhances NOAA?s
science, service, and stewardship to these areas,? said Dr. Richard
Spinrad, NOAA assistant administrator for oceanic and atmospheric
research. ?With Leon?s leadership, I look forward to new and dynamic
efforts between NOAA and Sea Grant.? 
 
Cammen, who has been acting director since the February 2006 retirement
of former Sea Grant Director Ronald Baird, will begin his new position
about Aug. 20.
 
Cammen has been with Sea Grant since 1990, where he has served as a
program officer, research director, and acting deputy director, in
addition to acting director. Since 2004, Cammen has been the program
manager for NOAA?s ecosystem research program, a cross-cutting entity
including programs and laboratories from OAR, the National Ocean Service,
and the National Marine Fisheries Service.
 
He holds a Ph.D. in zoology from North Carolina State University,
Raleigh, N.C. He carried out postdoctoral research as a National Research
Council Canada Fellow at the Bedford Institute of Oceanography, as a NATO
Fellow at the Institute of Ecology and Genetics of Aarhus University in
Denmark, and at Skidaway Institute of Oceanography. In 1981, Cammen
joined the Bigelow Laboratory for Ocean Sciences and over the next ten
years his research included benthic ecology, respiratory physiology, the
microbial loop, benthic-pelagic coupling, and ecosystem modeling. His
Danish connection has continued as a visiting scientist at Odense
University and a visiting professor at Aarhus University. He is the
author of more than 30 publications in marine ecology and biological
oceanography.
 
In 2007 NOAA, an agency of the U.S. Commerce Department, celebrates 200
years of science and service to the nation. Starting with the
establishment of the U.S. Coast and Geodetic Survey in 1807 by Thomas
Jefferson much of America's scientific heritage is rooted in NOAA. 
The agency is dedicated to enhancing economic security and national
safety through the prediction and research of weather and climate-related
events and information service delivery for transportation, and by
providing environmental stewardship of our nation's coastal and marine
resources. Through the emerging Global Earth Observation System of
Systems (GEOSS), NOAA is working with its federal partners, more than 60
countries and the European Commission to develop a global monitoring
network that is as integrated as the planet it observes, predicts and
protects.

                                               
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On the Web:

www.noaa.gov

http://www.seagrant.noaa.gov/colleges/colleges.html

Irene Miles
Illinois-Indiana Sea Grant
376 NSRC
1101 W. Peabody Dr.
Urbana, Il 61801
(217) 333-8055
FAX (217) 333-8046