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Wednesday, 16 June 2010

Professor Jörg Imberger, Director of the Centre for Water Research and Professor of Environmental Engineering at The University of Western Australia, is one of six internationally recognised scientific experts who will serve on an independent Advisory Council set up by BP in response to the Gulf of Mexico oil spill.

BP has committed US$500 million towards the Gulf of Mexico Research Initiative, an independent research program set up to investigate the impacts of the oil, dispersed oil, and dispersant on the ecosystems of the Gulf of Mexico and affected coastal States.

Chaired by Dr Rita Colwell, the advisory council comprises independent scientific experts with deep understanding of the technical content and research management issues of a program of this magnitude.

The advisory council will review all proposals, select research centres and provide research management for the 10-year program that's due to start in January next year.  The research will be carried out by consortia of scientists working collaboratively in research centres, likely to be hosted by universities or other research institutes.

The consortia will include experts in physical, chemical and biological oceanography; marine biology; coastal and reef ecosystems; development of physical, chemical and biological instrumentation; advanced modelling and data handling; fisheries and wildlife and environmental sociology.

Council members are:

  • Dr Rita Colwell - Distinguished University Professor at the University of Maryland and at Johns Hopkins University Bloomberg School of Public Health.
  • Dr David Halpern - Senior Advisor for earth science research at NASA Headquarters and Senior Research Scientist at Caltech/NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory.
  • Professor Jörg Imberger - Director for the Centre for Water Research at the University of Western Australia.
  • Professor John Shepherd - Professorial Research Fellow in Earth System Science at the National Oceanography Centre at the University of Southampton, UK.
  • Dr Jürgen Rullkötter - Director of the Institute for Chemistry and Biology of the Marine Environment at the University of Oldenburg, Germany.

Media references

Professor Jörg Imberger (+61 8)  6488 3911  /  (+61 4) 08 914 607
Janine MacDonald (UWA Public Affairs)  (+61 8)  6488 5563  /  (+61 4) 32 637 716

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