BlogCover DickeyUTMSI Director, Dr. Robert Dickey.UTMSI Director, Dr. Robert Dickey, participated in several advisory panels for the National Oceanic Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) this month.

Dr. Dickey has been a member of the NOAA Restoration Science Program Advisory Working Group since its inception. Earlier this month, Dickey and the working group presented a report about how the NOAA RESTORE Act Science Program was moving forward on projects and funds related to the Deep Water Horizon oil spill event. The report was addressed to NOAA’s Science Advisory Board, which is the only Federal Advisory Committee with responsibility to advise the Under Secretary of Commerce for Oceans and Atmosphere on long- and short-range strategies for research, education and the application of science to resource management and environmental assessment and prediction.

In addition to weighing in on how NOAA is supporting research in the Gulf of Mexico, Dr. Dickey was also a member of NOAA’s blue ribbon panel for the National Estuarine Research Reserve System. The panel met last week to assist with strategic planning of the system and to identify strategies to strengthen the program to ensure that it is meeting the goals set forth by NOAA and the needs of the nation.