The National Science Foundation (NSF) Directorate for Geosciences has appointed Robert Detrick [right] of the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI) as its new director of the Division of Earth Sciences.Bob and I worked together at Standard Oil of California (now Chevron) in San Francisco in the mid-1970s. I'm delighted to see him move into this position that plays such an important role in guiding and supporting new directions in the earth sciences.
Bob is currently a senior scientist and vice president for Marine Facilities and Operations at WHOI, and will begin his NSF position on Nov. 3, 2008. He is a geophysicist and seismologist whose research has focused primarily on the structure and evolution of oceanic crust, the size, depth and physical properties of ridge crest magma chambers, and the effect of hotspots on the thermal evolution of the lithosphere.
NSF's Division of Earth Sciences supports basic research and education into the structure, composition, and evolution of the Earth, and the life it supports. The Division has programs in geobiology and low-temperature geochemistry, geomorphology, sedimentary geology and paleobiology, hydrology, geophysics, tectonics, and petrology and geochemistry.