ODU Oceanography Professor Appointed to Presidential Commission on Arctic Research

President George W. Bush appointed Thomas C. Royer, professor and eminent scholar of Ocean, Earth and Atmospheric Sciences to the Arctic Research Commission for the remainder of a four-year term expiring February 26, 2008.

Thomas C. Royer

Royer, who is also a Samuel L. and Fay M. Slover professor, joined the College of Science's Center of Coastal Physical Oceanography in 1996 after retiring from the University of Alaska. He has been active in long-term oceanographic sampling in the North Pacific and Chesapeake Bay to better understand coastal and deep ocean processes.

He began his academic career at the University of Alaska after completing his doctorate at Texas A&M University in 1969. While there, he began work measuring long waves (tsunamis) in the North Pacific and making hydrographic measurements in Alaskan fjords. For 27 years, he performed measurements of hydrography in the northeast Pacific from Alaska to Hawaii during all seasons of the year. This work led to the discovery of a significant coastal current along the coast of Alaska that is driven by freshwater discharge. Knowledge of this current allowed a reasonable prediction of the trajectory of the oil released during the 1989 EXXON Valdez oil spill.

Active in the University National Laboratory System, Royer served on the Fleet Improvement Committee, the Advisory Council and as Vice Chairman. He was the chairman of a national committee that designed a new Arctic Research Vessel and has served on the MMS Scientific Advisory Committee and the Ocean Studies Board. He is active in the international North Pacific Marine Science Organization (PICES) and serves as an U.S. representative to the Technical Committee on Data Exchange of PICES. He is also on the steering committee of the Coastal Ocean Program.

After joining Old Dominion University, he served as acting chair for the Department of Ocean, Earth and Atmospheric Sciences from 2001-03 and was instrumental in overseeing planning, design and construction of the College's new research vessel, R. V. Slover.

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