Congratulations to Dr Mike Castellini - new Dean School of Fisheries and Ocean Sciences, UAF

Dr Mike Castellini (front row 2nd from left) with the UAF SFOS Advisory Council

(photo by Carin Bailey Stephens)

We were delighted to receive the news earlier this month that Dr Mike Castellini has been appointed as Dean of the School of Fisheries and Ocean Science (SFOS) at UAF.  Mike is the third Dean in the history of the school and has been interim Dean since mid 2010.  Full details of Mike's background and service at UAF can be found on the SFOS website - http://www.sfos.uaf.edu/news/story/?ni=375.  The Alaska SeaLife Center has a close relationship with Mike - he served as our foundation Director of Science and maintains a strong working relationship with staff here.

I had the pleasure to spend last weekend with Dean Castellini and other SFOS faculty.  The School of Fisheries and Ocean Sciences Advisory Council met in Anchorage to provide input on a range of issues facing the School as well as to hear about recent developments and progress with various initiatives such as the new Artctic Research Vessel, Sikuliaq.  It was terrific to be able to work with the Dean so early in his tenure to learn more of his vision and identify areas where we could jointly help maintain the tremendous momentum that the school has generated over the past decade and so realize the enormous potential of the School.  Given the increasing significance of fisheries and ocean sciences in Alaska and the Arctic generally it is evident that the School will continue to play a major role in the Alaskan economy and education system. 

As a long term partner of the School, we look forward to working with Mike in his new role.  We are very fortunate in having Dr Tuula Hollmen (our interim Director of Science and a UAF Faculty member) working with him and other SFOS and UAF faculty to develop a new framework for our collaboration that we hope to finalize by mid 2011 - stay tuned!