OCB is seeking nominations for new Scientific Steering Committee (SSC) members, including a new early career member! The term begins in January 2026. The following SSC members are scheduled to rotate off at the end of 2025:
- Yige Zhang (formerly Texas A&M University) – paleoceanography and paleoclimatology; organic and stable isotope geochemistry; global biogeochemical cycles
- David “Roo” Nicholson (Woods Hole Oceanographic Inst.) – global biogeochemical cycles in the context of a changing climate, cycling of dissolved gases, including oxygen, carbon dioxide, methane and the noble gases
- Jessica Luo (NOAA/GFDL) – plankton ecology, food webs, biogeochemical dynamics, global-scale marine ecosystem models
- Dreux Chappell (USF) – molecular microbial ecology, phytoplankton cultivation/physiology, and trace metal biogeochemistry
- Anela Choy (Scripps Inst. Oceanography) – Deep-sea biological oceanography, water column food web ecology, pelagic ecosystem dynamics, biochemical tracers
We are especially interested in filling the following expertise gaps:
- Deep sea biogeochemical and ecological processes
- Molecular microbial ecology
- Plankton ecology
- Nitrogen cycling
- Paleoceanographic perspectives on marine ecosystems and biogeochemical cycles
To qualify for the early career spot, a nominee must have completed a PhD within the last 4 years; both postdoctoral researchers and new faculty members are eligible. For the early career nominees who are currently postdocs, a letter of support from the nominee’s postdoctoral advisor is required in addition to filling out the nomination form. This letter of support should be sent to hbenway@whoi.edu.
Please consider casting a wide net in submitting nominations. We are seeking to entrain a broad range of voices and ideas in OCB! Nominees can be from any US-based institution (including Univ. Puerto Rico, Univ. Virgin Islands or in other US territories). Please submit nomination(s) (self-nominations are welcome) HERE by November 21. All nominees’ 2-page abbreviated CVs should be sent to hbenway@whoi.edu.
Nominees are primarily evaluated based on their science expertise (relative to emerging expertise gaps) and their leadership potential. We encourage re-nomination if a prior nomination round was not successful. Note that many SSC members are nominated multiple times before becoming members. OCB SSC members serve a 3-year term. To learn more about what the OCB SSC is/does, please visit the SSC page of the OCB website and feel free to reach out to current SSC members about time commitment and their experiences as SSC members.
