Webb Institute announced the appointment of Mr. Richard P. Neilson as its next Academic Dean. Neilson will assume responsibility for the academic program on July 1 of this year, succeeding Dr. Roger H. Compton, Dean since 1998. Mr. Neilson, a 1970 graduate of Webb, returns to his alma mater after a long and distinguished career in the marine industry. Immediately after graduation he worked for the United States Coast Guard in Washington, D.C., in the Design Branch of their Naval Engineering Division. From 1974 to 1979 he was with Newport News Shipbuilding and Dry Dock Company and then with Sun Shipbuilding and Dry Dock as a naval architect in the Tanker Product Group and as Supervisor of Structural Engineering. In 1979 Mr.