The OOIFB is pleased to welcome its newest member, Dr. Jun-Hong Liang. Dr. Liang joins the OOIFB from the Department of Oceanography & Coastal Sciences (Center for Computation and Technology) at Louisiana State University. Dr. Liang’s expertise in ocean modeling and his background work with Station Papa and Irminger Sea data will greatly complement, and augment, the knowledge of current OOIFB members. Dr. Liang fills an open position on the OOIFB that was vacated by Dr. Kendra Daly. The OOIFB expresses its sincere gratitude to Dr. Daly who has stepped down as Immediate Past Chair; we appreciate Kendra’s guidance and commitment to the OOI community over the last several years.
The OOIFB would also like to welcome new Data Systems Committee (DSC) members, Jaqui Degan and Meghan Paulson. Jaqui is a Marine Technology faculty member at Cape Fear Community College, as well as a member of the NSF-funded OOI Ocean Data Labs Team. She brings fresh perspectives to the DSC from the educator and student data user communities. Meghan Paulson, Director of Observatory Digital Operations for Ocean Networks Canada (ONC) is the ONC representative who will sit on the DSC in a non-voting role. Continuing to have open conversations with ONC, learning about successes and understanding challenges, as well as identifying synergies between observatory user communities is key. Meghan’s science/data team role within ONC, and her work to keep the flow and access of data from ONC’s cabled ocean observatories and autonomous instruments open and available, blends nicely with the goals and objectives of the DSC.