The University Corporation for Atmospheric Research (UCAR) has chosen Andrew Rosenberg to serve as the interim director of its new Center for Ocean Leadership, effective today.

Rosenberg is an oceanographer and biologist by training and brings extensive programmatic and policy experience to the role. As a recognized leader in the ocean community, Rosenberg will be engaging with stakeholders to solicit input into the development of the center. In addition, he will be chairing the search committee to hire a permanent director and ensuring the smooth transition of programs that were once housed in the Consortium for Ocean Leadership, which dissolved at the end of September, to UCAR’s new center.

“I am confident that Andy brings both a steady leadership hand and the deep knowledge of the issues and priorities of the ocean research community that will collectively put the new Center for Ocean Leadership firmly on the path to success,” said UCAR President Antonio Busalacchi. “I look forward to supporting Andy as he works to establish this new center as a trusted entity with the Earth system science community, building on the legacy of its predecessor and creating new opportunities for its programs."

Rosenberg has served in senior positions in government, academia, and nonprofit institutions as a scientist, policymaker, and advisor. He is a former deputy director of NOAA’s National Marine Fisheries Service, where he also served as northeast regional administrator. He also worked for a decade as a professor of natural resources and the environment at the University of New Hampshire, where he previously served as dean of the College of Life Sciences and Agriculture. Most recently, Rosenberg was the founding director of the Center for Science and Democracy at the Union of Concerned Scientists. 

Rosenberg was the convening lead author of the oceans chapter of the Third U.S. National Climate Assessment and served on the secretariat for the full assessment. He was a convening lead author of the first UN World Ocean Assessment. He served on the National Academy of Sciences’ Ocean Studies Board and the U.S. Commission on Ocean Policy. 

He holds a doctorate of biology from Dalhousie University in Halifax, Canada, a master’s in oceanography from Oregon State University, and a bachelor’s in fisheries biology from the University of Massachusetts.

"I am excited by the opportunity to lead this center through its initial phase of development and build upon the work of so many others in the ocean science community,” Rosenberg said. “Continuing to foster existing programs in ocean observation, ocean exploration, and ocean education while actively exploring new opportunities with our member institutions is a challenge I look forward to.

The transition of the consortium’s programs to UCAR as part of its existing community programs will serve to strengthen the ties between atmospheric and ocean research communities and facilitate scientific study of the Earth as a coupled system. Such research is critical in order to provide society the information it needs in the face of climate change, severe weather, and other environmental threats. 

“UCAR’s Center for Ocean Leadership will bring focus to the ocean within the context of the coupled Earth system, consistent with the UCAR Strategic Plan,” Busalacchi said. “NOAA’s accurate prediction of Hurricane Ian’s rapid intensification, landfall, storm surge, and coastal inundation serve as a timely and vivid illustration of the importance of understanding, observing, and predicting the coupled atmosphere-ocean-land system above and beyond the atmosphere or ocean unto themselves.”

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