Dr. Worth D. Nowlin Jr.

Professor Nowlin is a Distinguished Professor Emeritus of Oceanography at Texas A&M University. He has held positions with the National Science Foundation, the Office of Naval Research, Oregon State University, the National Data Buoy Center of NWS/NOAA, the Naval Meteorology and Oceanography Command, NOAA's Coastal Services Center and the Texas A&M Research Foundation, as well as Texas A&M University. He has served on many scientific advisory and management panels for ONR, NASA, NSF, NOAA, NRC, AMS, AGU and various UN agencies. From 1998 to 2006 he chaired the U.S. GOOS Steering Committee. He chairs the Board of Directors of the Gulf of Mexico Coastal Ocean Observing System-Regional Association and is a member of the Management Committee of the World Meteorological Organization—Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission Joint Technical Commission for Oceanography and Marine Meteorology (JCOMM), and chair of the JCOMM/GOOS-Industry Task Team. He is a Fellow of the American Geophysical Union, Admiral in the Texas Navy, recipient of the Antarctic Service Medal of the U.S.A., recipient of a Certificate of Appreciation from the Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission of UNESCO for his contributions to work on climate and the oceans and development of the Global Ocean Observing System, twice recipient of the TAMU Association of Former Students Distinguished Achievement Award for Research, and recipient of the 2006 AGU Ocean Sciences Award. He is working actively to develop the Global Ocean Observing System, the U.S. Integrated Ocean Observing System, and the Gulf of Mexico Coastal Ocean Observing System (GCOOS). His research interests focused primarily on meso- to large-scale ocean property distributions and circulation (particularly in the Gulf of Mexico and Southern Ocean), shelf circulation, long-term and systematic ocean observations, and research planning and management. He has been principal or co-principal investigator on more than 80 sponsored projects. He has directed 32 graduate student committees and supported 17 postdoctoral scholars. He has over sixty refereed publications and numerous abstracts and reports. Since 1989 Nowlin has spent a major part of his professional life working to develop the Global Climate and the Global Ocean Observing Systems, and subsystems such as the U.S. Integrated Ocean Observing system and the Gulf of Mexico Coastal Ocean Observing system.