New Members of NOAA’s Hydrographic Services Review Panel
NOAA Administrator Jane Lubchenco recently appointed nine new members to the Hydrographic Services Review Panel, a federal advisory committee that gives NOAA independent advice for improving ocean and coastal navigation products, information, data and services.
“Optimizing the benefits of navigation services and products is a priority for the agency,” said Margaret Spring, chief of staff for NOAA and the agency’s representative to the Committee on the Marine Transportation System (CMTS). “We look forward to hearing perspectives and receiving advice from our new committee members, who represent a wide variety of maritime and coastal zone stakeholder interests.
New members of the panel are:
Dr. Lawson W. Brigham, University of Alaska Fairbanks, Geography Program
Stephen Carmel, Maersk Line, Ltd.
Jeffrey Carothers, Fugro Consultants, Inc.
Dr. Michele Dionne, Wells National Estuarine Research Reserve
William Hanson, Great Lakes Dredge & Dock Company, LLC
Dr. David A. Jay, Portland State University, Department of Civil & Environmental Engineering
Joyce Miller, University of Hawaii at Manoa, Joint Institute for Marine and Atmospheric Research
Scott R. Perkins, Wilson & Company, Inc.
Susan Shingledecker, BoatUS Foundation
The new members join current members:
Edmund Welch, Passenger Vessel Association (panel chair)
Captain Sherri Hickman, Houston Pilots
Captain Thomas Jacobsen, Jacobsen Pilot Services, Inc.
Dr. Gary A. Jeffress, Texas A&M University, Corpus Christi, Geographic Information Science
Ramon Torres Morales, InterAmerican University, Puerto Rico
Matthew Wellslager, South Carolina Geodetic Survey (reappointed)
The new panel members attended a navigation services orientation briefing on March 24-25, in Silver Spring, Md. NOAA’s navigation services offices – the Office of Coast Survey, National Geodetic Survey, and the Center for Operational Oceanographic Products and Services – presented some of the national challenges the panel will explore in the months and years ahead.
“The maritime and coastal challenges are immense, and we need to involve private industry and academia to help us determine the most effective responses,” Spring explained. “Whether it is ensuring safe navigation through new Arctic transit routes, hastening the re-opening of ports after hurricanes and other emergencies, acquiring coastal data that also serves additional uses such as science and marine spatial planning, or any number of other challenges, NOAA will gain immense benefit from advice offered by this panel.”
The panel provides advice and recommendations on hydrographic surveying; nautical charting; water level and current measurements; geodetic measurements; shoreline mapping; and technologies relating to operations, research and development, and dissemination of data.
The Hydrographic Services Review Panel was established in 2003 as directed by the Hydrographic Services Improvement Act of 2002. The panel functions in accordance with the Federal Advisory Committee Act and advises the NOAA administrator on matters related to NOAA’s hydrographic and navigation services.
