JDG completes search for the Director, Office of Science and Technology for NOAA’s National Marine Fisheries Service

JDG and NOAA are pleased to announce the appointment of Dr. Evan Howell as the new director of NOAA’s Office of Science and Technology. In this role, Dr. Howell will advocate and ensure a sound scientific basis for NOAA Fisheries science programs and resource conservation and management decisions. He will coordinate closely with six NOAA Fisheries science centers in Alaska, Northeast, Northwest, Pacific Islands, Southeast, and Southwest.

For the past 5 years, Howell has served as the deputy director for the Pacific Islands Fisheries Science Center, though he began work with NOAA Fisheries as a Cooperative Institute employee in the Pacific Region back in 1997. Overall, he has spent 15 of these 23 years as an ecosystem scientist, 3 years leading IT and data management development to support scientific research, and 5 years as deputy at the science center. Throughout his career, Howell has demonstrated his leadership and participated in scientific research coupling physical and biological processes to better understand critical habitat and possible climate effects on highly migratory and protected species in the central North Pacific ecosystem. As part of this research, Howell authorized or co-authored more than 30 peer-reviewed scientific papers and participated in 11 NOAA or scientific partner research missions.

Howell received his B.S. in Biology and Chemistry from Antioch University in Ohio, his M.S. in Marine and Atmospheric Chemistry from the University of Miami, and his Ph.D. in Marine Bioresource and Environmental Science from Hokkaido University.