Jane Lubchenco Confirmed as NOAA Administrator

Pledges to lead with the "best science as our guide"

March 19, 2009

Jane Lubchenco.

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Jane Lubchenco, Ph.D., was confirmed by the U.S. Senate this evening as the
under secretary of commerce for oceans and atmosphere. In this capacity, she
will serve as the ninth administrator of the National Oceanic and
Atmospheric Administration, the nation's top science agency for climate,
oceans, and the atmosphere. Dr. Lubchenco is the first woman and the first
marine ecologist to lead NOAA.

"Dr. Lubchenco is an outstanding and accomplished environmental scientist
with a proven ability to communicate, lead a dynamic team, and inspire
action," White House Council on Environmental Quality Chair Nancy Sutley
said. "Dr. Lubchenco joins a distinguished group of scientific leaders in
the Obama administration that will ensure that science plays its proper role
in shaping policy."  

With a budget of $4 billion, and 12,800 employees in every U.S. state and
locations around the world, NOAA understands and predicts changes in the
Earth's environment, from the depths of the ocean to the surface of the sun,
and conserves and manages our coastal and marine resources.

"I am truly honored and humbled to be part of the NOAA team," Lubchenco
said. "With hard work and the best science as our guide, NOAA can spur the
creation of new jobs and industries, revive our fisheries and the economies
and communities they support, improve weather forecasting and disaster
warnings, provide credible information about climate change to Americans,
and protect and restore our coastal ecosystems."

Lubchenco, a Denver native, is a graduate of Colorado College, received her
Masters degree from the University of Washington and Ph.D. from Harvard
University in marine ecology, taught at Harvard for two years, and prior to
assuming her new duties as NOAA administrator has been on the faculty at
Oregon State University since 1977.

"Jane is the rare person who is both a top flight scientist and skilled
policy-maker. Her years of public service with the National Academy of
Sciences and the Joint Ocean Commission Initiative and many other
organizations have prepared her well for taking the helm of NOAA,"
Co-chairman of the Joint Ocean Commission Initiative Admiral James D.
Watkins.

Jane Lubchenco.

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As an advocate for science, Lubchenco is well known in international and
national arenas. She is a former president of the International Council for
Science, the American Association for the Advancement of Science and the
Ecological Society of America. She was a presidential-appointee for two
terms on the National Science Board, which advises the president and
Congress and oversees the National Science Foundation. Lubchenco is an
elected member of the National Academy of Sciences, the American Academy of
Arts and Sciences, the American Philosophical Society, the Royal Society,
and the Academy of Sciences for the Developing World. She served on the Pew
Oceans Commission and the Joint Oceans Commission Initiative.

Lubchenco has received numerous awards including a MacArthur ("Genius")
Fellowship, nine honorary degrees, the 2002 Heinz Award in the Environment,
the 2003 Nierenberg Prize for Science in the Public Interest, the 2004
Environmental Law Institute Award and the 2005 American Association for the
Advancement of Science's Award for Public Understanding of Science and
Technology.