Dr. Björn Kjerfve, Dean of the College of Geosciences at Texas A&M University, has been elected to a three-year term on the Board of Governors of the Integrated Ocean Drilling Program Management International, Inc. (IODP-MI), a nonprofit, U.S. Corporation with an international membership of academic institutions committed to scientific ocean drilling research. This 14-member board governs and manages the affairs, funds, and property of the corporation.
(PressZoom) - Dr. Björn Kjerfve, Dean of the College of Geosciences at Texas A&M University, has been elected to a three-year term on the Board of Governors of the Integrated Ocean Drilling Program Management International, Inc. ( IODP-MI ), a nonprofit, U.S. Corporation with an international membership of academic institutions committed to scientific ocean drilling research. This 14-member board governs and manages the affairs, funds, and property of the corporation.
With offices in Washington, D.C. and Sapporo, Japan, IODP-MI is responsible for program-wide science planning and oversight of the International Ocean Drilling Program ( IODP ). IODP-MI works in consultation with vessel/platform operators known as Implementing Organizations with funding from the United States ( US ) through the National Science Foundation ( NSF ), Japan, and Europe. The US Implementing Organization, known as the USIO Alliance, is comprised of three members – the Consortium for Ocean Leadership, Texas A&M University, and Columbia University’s Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory. The USIO Alliance oversees, and Texas A&M manages, the drilling vessel R/V JOIDES Resolution which normally travels the world’s oceans drilling into the ocean bottom as deep as 6000 feet and being able to operate in depths of over 18,000 feet. The drilling vessel is currently being refitted using $115M in funding from the NSF's Major Research, Equipment, and Facilities Construction account at a shipyard in Singapore. It is expected to begin drilling again in November 2008 off the coast of New Zealand. The costs of the IODP program represent the largest research grant at Texas A&M University with a total value of approximately $0.5 billion over 10 years.
Science operations for IODP are based at the IODP facility in Research Park on the Texas A&M campus which includes the operations of the R/V JOIDES Resolution, archiving scientific core data and samples that are collected, and producing and disseminating data and program publications.
Kjerfve is Dean of the College of Geosciences and a professor in the departments of Oceanography and Geography. Kjerfve serves as the TAMU member representative to the Consortium for Ocean Leadership, and was previously a member of the Board of Governors of the two organizations which in 2007 became the Consortium for Ocean Leadership, i.e. the Joint Oceanographic Institutions ( JOI ) and the Consortium for Ocean Research and Education ( CORE ). Kjerfve is a native of Sweden, a coastal physical oceanographer, and has served as Dean of the College of Geosciences at Texas A&M since 2004.
This news item was released on 2008-07-05. Please make sure to visit the official company or organization web site to learn more about the original release date. See our disclaimer for more information.
(c) PressZoom.com - Press Release Distribution Service - All Rights Reserved
