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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Nov. 20, 2007
For More Information:
Katy Johansson, (360) 725-5442

Puget Sound Partnership taps leading scientists to guide restoration effort

OLYMPIA – Working toward its goal of restoring the environmental health of Puget Sound by the year 2020, the Puget Sound Partnership today announced a group of preeminent scientists who will help direct its work.

The Science Panel will provide independent, scientific advice to the Leadership Council, the governing body of the Puget Sound Partnership, as it develops a comprehensive plan to restore Puget Sound.

“Some of the state’s top scientists are on now board to help ensure this effort is a success,” said David Dicks, executive director of the Puget Sound Partnership. “Their expertise and input is critical to developing a restoration plan that is grounded in good science.”

The Leadership Council, chaired by Bill Ruckelshaus, has appointed the following nine members to serve four-year terms on the Science Panel:

  • Joel Baker, University of Washington Tacoma (UWT). For more than 20 years, Baker has led water and air quality assessments in a variety of complex ecosystems, including the Great Lakes, the Hudson River and Chesapeake Bay. In January, Baker will join the UWT as the Port of Tacoma chair in environmental science, where he will lead UWT’s environmental research, advise the Port and City of Tacoma and other local groups, and serve as science director for the Center for Urban Waters.
  • Guy Gelfenbaum, U.S. Geological Survey (USGS). An oceanographer with USGS since 1989, Gelfenbaum has experience in ecosystem dynamics, large-scale coastal change, sediment transport of catastrophic geologic hazards and sediment dynamics of coastal systems. Currently he is USGS’s project chief of coastal habitats for Puget Sound.

 

  • Robert Johnston, U.S. Navy. A senior scientist with the Navy’s Marine Environmental Support Office, Johnston specializes in providing technical assistance to marine pollution and ecological risk assessment issues for Navy activities, including investigating the risk of polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) released from sunken ships and evaluating the risk of constructing artificial reefs with former warships.
  • Jan Newton, University of Washington (UW). As principal oceanographer at UW’s Applied Physics Laboratory, Newton provides oversight of an observational and modeling study of hypoxia in Hood Canal. Newton also is an assistant professor at UW’s School of Oceanography, where she works with faculty and students to develop and conduct research on biological oceanography of Pacific Northwest coastal and inland waters. 

 

  • Timothy Quinn, Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife (WDFW). Chief scientist of the WDFW’s habitat program since 1999, Quinn also is a member of The Evergreen State College’s adjunct faculty, where he teaches in the Master’s in Environmental Studies program. Quinn recently served on the Science Working Group that came up with scientific underpinnings and a technical framework for the development of the Puget Sound Partnership.
  • Frank Shipley, USGS. Shipley has worked as a Western regional biologist for USGS since 2003. Before that he was the director of USGS’s Western Fisheries Resource Center. Prior to that he spent several years in Texas working in various roles, including director of the Galveston Bay National Estuary Program and environmental water quality specialist for the Texas Water Commission.

 

  • John Stark, Washington State University (WSU). Stark is a professor/scientist in the Department of Entomology at WSU’s Puyallup Research and Extension Center. His research interests include ecotoxicology of pesticides and other toxicants in aquatic and agricultural ecosystems, as well as developing risk assessment for aquatic organisms inhabiting rivers and streams in the Pacific Northwest.

 

  • Usha Varanasi, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). Science and research director of NOAA’s Northwest Fisheries Science Center since 1994, Varanasi also is an affiliate professor of chemistry at the University of Washington. Recently, Varanasi represented NOAA as a special science adviser to the Puget Sound Partnership, providing direction and resources to develop “Sound Science.”
  • Katharine Wellman, Northern Economics, Inc. Wellman has 20 years of experience as a social scientist in the marine estuarine environment. Currently a marine environmental economist with Northern Economics, Inc., Wellman has also held positions at NOAA and Battelle Memorial Institute.

 

The Washington State Academy of Sciences – whose primary task it is to provide scientific analysis and recommendations on questions referred to them by the governor or legislature – selected 15 candidates from a pool of 54 applicants representing a cross-section of scientific expertise and broad range of professional experiences. From those 15 semi-finalists, the Leadership Council selected the nine members described above to be on the Science Panel.
Science Panel meetings will be open to the public. While no meetings have yet been scheduled, information will be available online at: www.psp.wa.gov.
At the request of Gov. Chris Gregoire, the 2007 Legislature created the Puget Sound Partnership, whose primary mission it is to prepare an Action Agenda for the restoration of Puget Sound.
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