Dear all,

A warm congratulations from the OCB Project office to Chris Sabine, the next
director of the NOAA Pacific Marine Environmental Laboratory.

***

From: NOAA Communications [mailto:Press.Releases@noaa.gov]
Sent: Tuesday, October 18, 2011 8:06 AM
To: Internalpa.distribution@noaa.gov
Subject: Oceanographer named to head NOAA's Seattle research laboratory

Contact:        Jana Goldman    FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
301-734-1123                                                  October 18, 2011

Oceanographer named to head NOAA's Seattle research laboratory

An environmental oceanographer who has published more than 100 scientific
articles on the global carbon cycle and was among the first to publish
scientific data about ocean acidification has been chosen to be the director of
the NOAA laboratory known for studying ocean physics and chemistry, innovative
research in tsunamis, and underwater volcanoes.

Christopher Sabine, Ph.D. will become the third director of NOAA's Pacific
Marine Environmental Laboratory (PMEL) in Seattle, Wash. on November 20.

Dr. Sabine brings that unique combination of an excellent scientific
background and superior leadership skills essential for the director of this
laboratory, said Craig McLean, acting assistant administrator for NOAA's
Office of Oceanic and Atmospheric Research. The lab has a long history of
innovative research that serves society every day that will continue and
flourish under Dr. Sabine's leadership.

Sabine has been at PMEL since 1999 and became a supervisory oceanographer in
2008. His work concentrates on the global carbon cycle and in 2004 he was one
of the lead authors of a pair of papers published in Science using direct
measurements to quantify the accumulation of human-derived carbon dioxide in
the ocean and its impact on marine ecosystems. His work, along with that of
another PMEL oceanographer, Richard Feely, Ph.D., helped shape the Federal
Ocean Acidification Research and Monitoring Act that was passed in March 2009.

I am honored to have this opportunity to help guide and facilitate NOAA's
ocean research, said Sabine. In particular, I am excited to work with
some of the world's most preeminent scientists to better understand how the
ocean affects our daily lives and how humans can affect the ocean.

Since 2004, Sabine has been a senior fellow at the University of Washington
Joint Institute for the Study of Atmosphere and Ocean and an affiliate full
professor at the University of Washington. Before coming to PMEL, he was on the
research staff of Princeton University, a research associate at the University
of Hawaii, and a research technician at the University of Texas Medical Branch.

He has been recognized by NOAA five times with Outstanding Scientific Paper
Awards and in 2006 received the Department of Commerce Gold Medal for
pioneering research leading to the discovery of increased acidification in the
world's oceans due to the absorption of carbon dioxide.

Among his many awards, Sabine received the NOAA Research Employee of the Year
Award for Leadership in 2009 and in 2010 he received the Seattle Federal
Executive Board's Public Service Award.

He serves on many national and international scientific committees and received
special recognition from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change for his
role in helping the IPCC win the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize shared with Al Gore. He
is a coordinating lead author on the IPCC fifth assessment report chapter on
“Carbon and Biogeochemical Cycles.”

Sabine holds a Bachelor of Science degree from Texas A&M University (1986) with
a major in marine science and a doctorate in oceanography from the University
of Hawaii-Manoa (1992).

 

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