Dr. Suyehiro has been Executive Director of Research & Development at Japan Agency for Marine-Earth Science and Technology (JAMSTEC) since 2003 and from May 2009 has beenbased at IODP (Integrated Ocean Drilling Program) Management International, Inc. in Washington, USA.

He received Dr. Sci. in Geophysics from the University of Tokyo in 1980. From then on, he worked at Tohoku University, Chiba University, and at Ocean Research Institute of the University of Tokyo chiefly engaged in marine seismology. He led and participated in many marine seismological research works studying crustal and lithospheric structures in relation to plate subduction seismicity and island arc evolution in the western Pacific area.

He was co-chief on ODP Leg 128 to emplace a digital broadband seismometer in ocean borehole in the Japan Sea in 1989. He has served as Senior Specialist for Scientific Affairs, Ministry of Education, Science and Culture, and was Treasurer and then Meetings Committee Chair for the Seismological Society of Japan. Dr. Suyehiro was Editor, Geophysical Research Letters, the publication of the American Geophysical Union, and he currently holds the position of Secretary of the Board of Governors of IODP-MI - Integrated Ocean Drilling Program Management International. He has authored many papers in the areas of subduction zone structure and dynamics, island arc structure and evolution, and seafloor and borehole sensor system developments and networking.

Dr. Suyehiro joined JAMSTEC in 1999 as Director of the Deep Sea Research Department to pursue his efforts to emplace seafloor observatories. Starting that year, 4 borehole observatories were set up in the Western Pacific forming an Ocean Hemisphere Network together with land stations. He oversees the overall research and activities at JAMSTEC focusing on predicting our future as accurately as possible as the System Earth changes, which to his mind means more observatories in the ocean.

Members of the Executive Committee:

Dr. Tony Haymet
Director, Scripps Institution of Oceanography, USA

Dr. Haymet took up the role as Director of Scripps Institution of Oceanography, Vice Chancellor for UC San Diego Marine Sciences, and Dean of the Graduate School of Marine Sciences in September 2006.

Prior to joining Scripps, Dr. Haymet served as Science and Policy Director and former Chief of Marine and Atmospheric Science at the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization (CSIRO), Australia's national science agency. Dr. Haymet is an Australian who completed his first degree in Physical Chemistry at the University of Sydney, followed by a Ph.D. from the University of Chicago.

He worked at Harvard, Berkeley and the University of Utah from 1981-1991. In 1991 he returned to Australia as Professor and Chair of Theoretical Chemistry at Sydney University. In 1998 he became Professor and Chair of Physical Chemistry at the University of Houston. In 2000 he established the Environmental Modelling Institute at the University working in the area of environmental modeling of ozone depletion and climate change with both air and marine applications.

Dr Haymet is a highly distinguished researcher with more than 160 peer-reviewed articles, and has been active in studying and exploiting fish "antifreeze" proteins.

Scripps POGO page.

Prof. Peter Herzig
Director, Leibniz Institute of Marine Sciences, IFM-GEOMAR, Germany

Prof. Herzig has been Director and CEO of the Leibniz Institute of Marine Sciences IFM-GEOMAR in Kiel, Germany since 2004. He also serves as Maritime Coordinator of the Government of the Federal State of Schleswig-Holstein and was appointed Maritime Ambassador of the European Union in 2007. He is a member of a number of national and international boards and committees and a Senator of the German Science Foundation. In 2000, Peter Herzig received the prestigious Leibniz Award of the German Science Foundation for his research on seafloor hydrothermal systems. He is a member of the German Academy of Science and Engineering and the Saxonian Academy of Sciences.

Prof. Herzig has participated in numerous oceanographic expeditions in all oceans, several as Chief Scientist. He has experience with deep diving and remotely operated vehicles and also sailed as scientist and Chief Scientist for the Ocean Drilling Program. Peter Herzig received his Ph.D. in Geology from the Aachen University of Technology in 1986. Following an Alexander von Humboldt Post-Doctoral Fellowship at the University of Toronto, he obtained a Research Associate and Assistant Professorship at Aachen and was a Visiting Professor at the Geological Survey of Canada.

From 1993-2003, Peter Herzig was Full Professor and Chair of Economic Geology and Petrology as well as Head of the Leibniz Laboratory for Applied Marine Research at Freiberg University of Mining and Technology in Germany. He served as Dean of the Faculty for Geosciences, Geo-Engineering and Mining from 1997-1999. Following a Visiting Professorship at the Southampton Oceanography Centre in the United Kingdom, Peter Herzig became Full Professor at the University of Kiel in 2003.

Dr. Kang has been president of KORDI since 2008. He is also Director or Gyeongbuk Institute of Marine Bio-Industry, Chairman of the Korea Oceanography Committee and Chairman of the President's Council of Environment Research Organisations.

He graduated from the University of Korea in 1976 with a BSc and in 1978 with an MSc. He then carried out his doctoral studies in France, where he obtained his PhD in Marine Mineral Resources from Orleans University in 1984.

During his time at KORDI (1990-present), he has been Head of Mineral Resource Research (1990-92), Deep Ocean Exploration Project Director (1992-97), Marine Geology Research Vice Director (1995-96), Head of the Marine Information Device Supporting Division (2000-01) and Head of the Innovation Division (2007-08).

Dr. Kang has published 5 books and has received the National Bronze Industrial Award and the Presidential Award.

Prof. Nigmatulin, Academician and Member of the Presidium of the Russian Academy of Sciences (RAS), took up the post of Director of the P.P. Shirshov Institute of Oceanology, RAS, in 2006 being a specialist in physics and mathematics, ecology, energetics and economics.

Prior to joining the Institute of Oceanology Dr. Nigmatulin was President of Ufa (Bashkortostan) Branch of RAS in 1993-2006 and Deputy of the State Duma of the Federal Assembly of Russia, Chairman of the Highest Ecology Council in 1999-2003.
Dr. Nigmatulin was born in Moscow in 1940. He graduated from the Bauman Technical University in 1963 and from the Lomonosov University of Moscow in 1965. He received his Ph.D. in Physics and Mathematics from the Lomonosov University in 1967 and Dr.Sc. in Physics and Mathematics from the same University in 1971. He became Full Member (Academician) of RAS in 1991. Dr. Nigmatulin was VisitingScholar and Professor at the Center of Multiphase Research, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Troy, N.Y., USA in 1993-2000, Visiting Professor at the University of Pierre and Marie Curie, Sorbonne, Paris, France in 1993 and 1996-1998 and Visiting Professor at the Isaac Newton Institute, Cambridge, Great Britain in 2000.

Dr. Nigmatulin’s scientific interests lie in applied mathematics; mechanics and thermophysics of multiphase systems, in particular, liquid-gas flows; theory of combustion and explosion; nuclear energetics, chemical and petroleum technologies; hydrodynamics, heat and mass transfer processes in oceanology; economic theory. Dr. Nigmatulin is author of 10 books, more than 200 scientific publications, including 20 patents for inventions. He has published several dozen articles on social and political life and has done numerous TV/radio appearanceson the issues of ecology, economics and state. Dr. Nigmatulin is member of the editorial boards of a number of international and national journals, including International Journal of Multiphase Flow (Pergamon Press), International Journal of Heatand Mass Transfer (Pergamon Press), Transport in Porous Media (Kluwer Academic Publishers), Thermodynamics and Fluid Mechanics (Kluwer Academic Publishers), Multiphase Science and Technology (Begell House Inc.), Applied Mechanics and Technological Physics – PMTF (Russia, Nauka) and is Editor-in-Chief of the journal Okeanologia (Russian Academy of Sciences). Dr. Nigmatulin has served on scientific organising committees of numerous international conferencesheld in different countries of the world and has taken an active part as an invited plenary lecturer in international scientific meetings.

The Executive Director is an ex-officio non-voting member of the Executive Committee.