Appendix A
Committee and Staff Biographies
COMMITTEE
Earl H. Doyle (Chair) obtained his M.S. in ocean engineering from the University of Rhode Island in 1968. Mr. Doyle is currently an independent consultant located in Sugar Land, Texas, specializing in the integration of marine geology, geophysics, and geotechnical engineering. Mr. Doyle recently retired from the Shell Oil Company, where he worked for 30 years in senior engineering positions. Mr. Doyle’s work focuses on offshore geotechnical engineering, especially the properties and behaviors of deepwater sediments. He has published on the topics of geohazard surveys in deep water and for exploratory drilling; methods of offshore piling; geological surveying for platform siting; sediment behavior resulting from earthquakes and wave movement; pile failure prevention; and platform system design. Mr. Doyle is a member of the National Research Council (NRC) Ocean Studies Board and served on its Committee on Exploration of the Seas. He is also a member of the American Petroleum Institute’s Geotechnical Resource Group and the U.S. Science Advisory Committee for Ocean Drilling. Mr. Doyle formerly served on the Academic Fleet Review Committee of the National Science Foundation.
Scott R. Dallimore earned his M.S. in geotechnical science in 1984. For the past 19 years he has served as a research scientist with the Geological Survey of Canada. His research interests include gas hydrate occurrences in the Beaufort-Mackenzie area in Canada, the circumpolar Arctic, and offshore of Japan. Mr. Dallimore’s past experiences include a lead scientist position for the joint Imperial Oil Ltd. and Shell Canada deep coring project, and a chief scientist position for two research well programs
(JAPEX/JNOC/GSC Mallik 2L-38 and Mallik 2002), where he collaborated with seven partners and twenty research agencies from four nations. Mr. Dallimore has also spearheaded a methane hydrate laboratory program at the Geological Survey of Canada.
Rana A. Fine earned her Ph.D. from the University of Miami in 1975. She is a professor of marine and atmospheric chemistry at the Rosenstiel School of Marine and Atmospheric Science at the University of Miami. Dr. Fine’s research interests include understanding the physical processes that determine the capacity of the oceans to take up atmospheric constituents, such as carbon dioxide. This involves measuring chlorofluorocarbons to study the rate at which the world’s oceans circulate. In addition to being a past member of the Ocean Studies Board (1992-1998), Dr. Fine served as a chair and member of several NRC committees including the Committee on Major U.S. Oceanographic Research Programs, the Panel on Climate Variability on Decade-to-Century Time Scales, the Geophysics Study Committee, and the Advisory Panel for the Tropical Ocean/Global Atmosphere Program. She is currently retiring chair of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) Section on Atmospheric and Hydrospheric Sciences and a member on the American Meteorological Society (AMS) Council. Some of her past awards include being elected as a fellow of the American Geophysical Union (1993) and secretary and president of the Ocean Sciences Section, fellow of the AAAS (1997), and fellow of the AMS (2001).
Amos M. Nur earned his Ph.D. in geophysics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He is a professor of geophysics and the director of the Rock Physics and Borehole Geophysics Project at Stanford University. Dr. Nur’s research interests include wave propagation, fluid flow, permeability, fractures and electrostatic properties of sedimentary rocks and how these apply to geophysical exploration, reservoir evaluation, and geo-thermal resources. He is also pursuing research on the mechanics of faults and accretion tectonics. Among his many awards for research and education, he is an elected member of the National Academy of Engineering, a fellow of the American Geophysical Union, a fellow of the Geological Society of America, an honorary member of the Society of Exploration Geophysicists, and a fellow of the California Academy of Sciences.
Michael E.Q. Pilson earned an M.S. in agricultural biochemistry from McGill University, Canada, and a Ph.D. in marine biology from the University of California, San Diego. He is a professor emeritus of oceanography at the University of Rhode Island. Dr. Pilson was the director of the Marine Ecosystems Research Laboratory at the University of Rhode Island for 20 years. His current research interests include the chemistry of seawater, biochemistry and physiology of marine organisms, and nutrient cycling. He is a member of the American Association for the Advancement of Science; Sigma Xi; the American Geophysical Union; the American Society of Mammalogists; the American Society of Limnology and Oceanography; and the Oceanography Society. He has published extensively, including the textbook An Introduction to the Chemistry of the Sea (1998), Prentice Hall, New Jersey
William S. Reeburgh earned his Ph.D. in oceanography from Johns Hopkins University in 1967. He is a professor of marine and terrestrial biogeochemistry at the University of California, Irvine. Before joining the University of California, he was a professor of marine science at the University of Alaska, Fairbanks, for 25 years. Dr. Reeburgh’s research interests include the carbon cycle, especially methane biogeochemistry. His work focuses on methane distribution in waters and sediments of large anoxic basins and wetlands, distribution of natural stable and radioisotopes in methane from these environments, as well as measurement of aerobic and anaerobic oxidation rates using labeled tracers. Dr. Reeburgh is the editor of the American Geophysical Union journal Global Biogeochemical Cycles and serves on the editorial advisory board of Geobiology. He served on the International Geosphere-Biosphere Programme Coordinating Panel on Terrestrial Biosphere-Atmospheric Chemistry Interactions and was convener of the International Global Atmospheric Chemistry Project’s High-Latitude Ecosystems as Sources and Sinks of Trace Gases activity. He contributed to the 1994 Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change report and served on the International Symposium on Environmental Biogeochemistry International Committee.
Earle Dendy Sloan, Jr., earned his Ph.D. in chemical engineering from Clemson University in South Carolina in 1974. He did postdoctoral research in hydrate at Rice University in 1975. He is currently the Weaver Distinguished Professor of Chemical Engineering at the Colorado School of Mines in Golden and the director of the Center for Hydrate Research, where he has worked as a professor since 1976. Dr. Sloan was previously a
senior engineer for E.I. DuPont de Nemours & Company, Inc. Dr. Sloan is known as a foremost engineer in the area of gas hydrate and is the author of a principal text in the field entitled Clathrate Hydrates of Natural Gases (Marcel Dekker, 1998), as well as authoring other texts including Hydrate Engineering (Society of Petroleum Engineers, 2000); and editing the First International Conference on Natural Gas Hydrates (New York Academy of Sciences, 1994). He is also the author of numerous chapters and more than 150 refereed publications in the hydrate field. He has held visiting chairs in hydrate research at Keio University, Japan (1996), and the University of Canterbury, New Zealand (2002). He holds four hydrate-related patents and is a fellow of the American Institute of Chemical Engineers.
Anne M. Tréhu earned her Ph.D. in 1982 from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology-Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution Joint Program in Oceanography. She is a professor of geophysics at Oregon State University’s College of Oceanic and Atmospheric Sciences. Dr. Tréhu’s research interests include seismic reflection and refraction data acquisition and processing on land and at sea; and deep crustal structure and tectonic-geologic processes at plate boundaries and continental margins, including gas hydrate on the Oregon continental margin. She was co-chief Scientist on Ocean Drilling Program (ODP) Leg 204. Dr. Tréhu served on the NRC Committee on Seismology from 1990 to 1996.
STAFF
Joanne C. Bintz (Study Director) earned her Ph.D. in biological oceanography from the University of Rhode Island Graduate School of Oceanography. Dr. Bintz has conducted research on the effects of decreasing water quality on eelgrass seedlings and the effects of eutrophication on shallow macrophyte-dominated coastal ponds using mesocosms. She has directed National Research Council studies on A Review of the Florida Keys Carrying Capacity Study (2002), Chemical Reference Materials: Setting the Standard for Ocean Science (2002), and Enabling Ocean Research in the 21st Century: Implementation of a Network of Ocean Observatories (2003). Her interests include coastal ecosystem ecology and function, eutrophication of coastal waters, coastal restoration, oceanographic education, and coastal management and policy.
Jennifer Merrill (Study Director) is a senior program officer at the Ocean Studies Board and has directed studies since 2001. She earned her Ph.D. in marine and estuarine environmental science from the University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science, Horn Point Laboratory. She directed the studies on Marine Biotechnology in the Twenty-First Century: Problems, Promise, and Products (2002); Ocean Noise and Marine Mammals (2003); and Exploration of the Seas: Voyage into the Unknown (2003). In addition, she assisted with the NRC report Oil in the Sea III (2003), is directing a study that will describe the determination of biologically significant activities of marine mammals to better manage their populations, and serves as the OSB staff contact for the International Council for Science’s (ICSU’s) Scientific Committee on Oceanic Research.
Nancy A. Caputo (Research Associate) received a master’s of public policy from the University of Southern California and a bachelor’s degree in political science-international relations. During her tenure with the Ocean Studies Board, she has assisted with the completion of five reports: A Review of the Florida Keys Carrying Capacity Study (2002); Emulsified Fuels—Risks and Response (2002); Decline of the Steller Sea Lion in Alaskan Waters—Untangling Food Webs and Fishing Nets (2003); Enabling Ocean Research in the 21st Century: Implementation of a Network of Ocean Observatories (2003); and River Basins and Coastal Systems Planning Within the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (2004). Ms. Caputo has previous professional experience researching socioeconomic assistance programs for fishing communities, and habitat restoration programs. Her interests include marine policy, science, and education.