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Subject: New Assistant Executive Officer (JGOFS IPO)

Dear All,
I am very pleased to announce the appointment of Dr. Bernard Avril as the new Assistant Executive Officer at the JGOFS International Project Office, replacing Dr. Beatriz Baliño who accepted the Program Coordinator position at the Bjerknes Center for Climate Research, University of Bergen (NORWAY).

Dr. Avril (Bernard) is a French citizen who completed his Ph.D. on the subject of dissolved organic carbon in seawater at the University of Pierre and Marie Curie (FRANCE) in 1995. Bernard's Ph.D. supervisor was Dr. Gérard Copin-Montegut, and together they published several articles in Deep-Sea Research (DSR), Tellus, and Annales de l'Institut Océanographique on the topic. During this period, Bernard also participated in the expansion of the DYFAMED database in the French-JGOFS program.

After his Ph.D., Bernard accepted a Post-Doctoral position at the University of South Florida (USA, 1995 to 1997) with Dr. Paula Coble. Here, Bernard's expertise in marine organic biogeochemistry was extended to bio-optics. They published an article on the distribution and optical properties of dissolved organic matter in DSR II resulting from their research in the US-JGOFS Arabian Sea process study.

Following his Post-Doc, Bernard's career experience expanded to international science administration, as the Assistant Project Manager for the Ocean Margin Exchange (OMEX) under the supervision of Roland Wollast and Lei Chou at the University of Libre de Bruxelles (BELGIUM). Here, his duties and responsibilities were similar in all respects to that of Beatriz at the IPO, e.g., SSC administration, ocean data management and web site maintenance. His daily responsibilities included interaction with partners in 10 countries, 40 institutions and 165 participants, organization of project symposia, presentations at international scientific conferences, preparation of reports and brochures from meeting, workshops and conferences, and finally support for the data management team at BODC for cruise inventory, data policy and partner directory.

Thus in the spirit of JGOFS, Bernard has a clear interest in JGOFS, multidisciplinary research and working across international borders, cultures and politics. Outside of JGOFS, Bernard enjoys outdoor activities (skiing, orienteering, mountain walking, etc.). So he looks forward to exploring the Norwegian's fjords and mountains during the summers and winters.

Bernard will join us here in Bergen in early April. Many of you will definitely get a chance to meet him at the SSC meeting and IGBP Open Science Conference in Amsterdam this July or in the coming months. So please join me in welcoming Bernard to the JGOFS IPO, as well as to the JGOFS, IGBP, and SCOR communities.

Best regards to all,
Roger
__________________________________________
Med vennlig hilsen/Best regards from
Roger B. Hanson,
Executive Director JGOFS International Project Office
Center for Studies of Environment and Resources
University of Bergen
Bergen High-Technology Center
5020 Bergen NORWAY
+47-55-58-4244 (telephone)
+47-55-58-9687 (telefax)
E-Mail: Roger.Hanson@jgofs.uib.no
http://ijgofs.whoi.edu/jgofs.html

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