2010 SFOS Advisory Council members (left to right): Jim Balsiger, Margaret Williams, Jay Stinson, Ian Dutton, David Policansky (chair), Heather McCarty (vice-chair), Bruce Bustamante, Arliss Sturgulewski, Jim McCarthy, Cynthia Jones, Knut Aagaard and Eric Olson. (photo courtesy : Carin Stephens, UAF-SFOS)
I recently had the privilege to join a distinguished group of colleagues at the Annual meeting of the UAF School of Fisheries and Ocean Sciences (SFOS) Advisory Council which was held in Fairbanks. The SFOS Advisory Council brings together a diverse group of stakeholders in marine science, education and management and provides advice to the Dean and faculty as well as an annual report to the Chancellor of UAF.
This year's meeting provided a chance to reflect on the many accomplishments of the School over the past year, including:
- approval of final funding of the new Arctic R/V Sikuliaq - now being built at the Marinette shipyard in Wisconsin
- receipt of >$25 million in new research awards which is around 20% of all UAF research awards
- hosting of the 12th annual Tsunami Bowl competition in Seward with 16 teams participating
- a dramatic increase (116%) increase in undergraduate fisheries student enrolments
- addition of six new Faculty in 2009
Additional recent accomplishments are described on the SFOS website (http://www.sfos.uaf.edu/) - clearly this is a vibrant and progressive program with a tremendous future given the rapidly expanding and ever changing needs for improved marine science in Alaska.
The Council was saddened to learn of the impending (mid 2010) resignation of SFOS Dean, Denis Wiesenburg. Denis is returning to his home State to become the University of Southern Mississippi's Vice President for Research. Denis also serves on the ASLC Board and many other committees that I work with and so his departure represents a major loss to many institutions beyond UAF. I was pleased to be able to join Denis and his wife Jean together with many SFOS faculty at a wonderful send-off dinner during which we all had the chance to acknowledge his amazing accomplishments over the past six years... and chasten him for leaving at such a critical juncture in SFOS's evolution!
The Council wrapped up our meeting by providing a range of inputs to the UAF Chancellor on key issues facing the school - an obvious priority is to find a new Dean quickly so as to sustain the momentum that Denis and other senior Faculty have built.
We look forward to working with whoever moves into that key role.
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