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18 MTR January 2007 Four researchers have been recognized by the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI) for their contributions to ocean sciences research and engineering. All will receive funding provided by the endowed awards to support their research over peri- ods of three to five years. The awards are effective January 1, 2007. Three of the researchers have been named recipients of endowed senior scientist chairs that provide financial support for five years, allowing the recipient the freedom to pur- sue a variety of career interests. One investi- gator received a technical staff award that provides support over three years. Dr. Wayne Rockwell "Rocky" Geyer, recipient of the Mary Sears Chair for Excellence in Oceanography, received a bachelor's degree in geology from Dartmouth College in 1977 and M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in physical oceanography from the University of Washington in 1981 and 1985, respectively. He joined the WHOI staff in 1985 as a postdoctoral scholar in the Applied Ocean Physics and Engineering Department, spent another year as a postdoctoral investigator, and was appointed assistant scientist in 1987. Geyer was promoted to associate scientist in 1991 and to senior scientist in 2001. Rocky Geyer served as director of the Institution's Rinehart Coastal Research Center from 1996 to 2001 and was chair of the Applied Ocean Physics and Engineering Department from 2001 to 2005. Geyer's research has centered on estuarine and coastal transport processes, sediment trans- port, and numerical modeling of estuaries and river plumes. He has conducted proj- ects in the Hudson River in New York, looking at sediment contamination from PCBs from electrical companies on the river, and the Eel River in California, where flooding has carried large amounts of sedi- ment into coastal areas. More recently he has conducted experiments in the Merrimack River in Massachusetts, study- ing the interaction between fresh and salt water and the ability of a river to disperse material into the Gulf of Maine. The Sears chair is named for Dr. Mary Sears, one of the first staff members of the Institution and a guiding force in its devel- opment. A biologist, she also served as clerk of the Institution's corporation for many years and was a major presence in uniting the international oceanographic communi- ty. She passed away in 1997 at the age of 92. Dr. Scott Doney, recipient of the W. Van Alan Clark, Sr. Chair for Excellence in Oceanography, is a senior scientist in the Marine Chemistry and Geochemistry Department. He received a bachelor's degree in chemistry from Revelle College at the University of California, San Diego in 1986 and a Ph.D. in chemical oceanogra- phy in 1991 from the MIT/WHOI Joint Graduate Program. He returned to WHOI in 2002 following eleven years in the Advanced Study Program and Climate and Global Dynamics Division at the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) in Boulder, CO. Doney was a Fellow of the Institution's Ocean and Climate Change Institute from 2003 to 2005 and serves as co-chair of the Biogeochemistry Working Group of the Community Climate System Model. He was chair and editor of Ocean Carbon and Climate Change: An Implementation Strategy for U.S. Ocean Carbon Research, released in 2004. His research interests include the global carbon cycle, marine bio- geochemistry and ecosystem dynamics, large-scale ocean circulation and tracers, and air-sea gas exchange. Dr. W. Brechner Owens, recipient of the W. Van Alan Clark, Jr. Chair for Excellence in Oceanography, is a senior scientist in the Physical Oceanography Department. He Science news WHOI Researchers Recognized MTR#1 (17-32).qxd 1/11/2007 3:53 PM Page 18
