President Emeritus
Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution

Dr. Robert B. Gagosian is President Emeritus of the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution in Woods Hole Massachusetts. He was appointed Director in 1994 and President in 2002 after a distinguished career as a marine geochemist. He is currently serving as Senior Science Advisor to the Director of the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History and leading the effort to merge the Joint Oceanographic Institutions with the Consortium for Ocean Research and Education in Washington, DC.

A Massachusetts native, Gagosian pursued his own academic career first at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where he completed a bachelor's degree in chemistry in 1966 and was named outstanding undergraduate in the Chemistry Department, and then moved to Columbia University, where he received a Ph.D. in organic chemistry in 1970. From 1970 to 1972, he was a National Institutes of Health Postdoctoral Fellow at the University of California, Berkeley. In 2000 he received Honorary Doctor of Science Degrees from Long Island University and Northeastern University.

In 1972, Gagosian was named an Assistant Scientist at Woods Hole, where he ascended through the ranks of academic and administrative appointments. In 1998, he was elected by his peers as Chairman of the Board of Governors for the 90-institution Consortium for Oceanographic Research and Education, and was a member of the Ocean Research Advisory Panel of the National Oceanographic Partnership Program. In 2001 he was appointed a Faculty Fellow of the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland. In 2002 he was appointed to serve on the Science Advisory Panel of the U.S. Commission on Ocean Policy and elected a Fellow of The American Academy of Arts & Sciences. In 2005 he was appointed to serve as a commissioner of the U.S. National Commission for the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) and was elected a Fellow of The Explorers Club. In 2006 he received the "Champion of the Oceans Award" by Monmouth University.

His op-ed pieces and editorials have appeared in a number of publications including The Washington Post, The New York Times, and Science, and his views on the importance of the oceans to the future of our society have been expressed in numerous personal presentations worldwide. He has also served on a wide variety of visiting and advisory committees and research panels for the National Academy of Sciences, several federal agencies and universities and research organizations in the US and internationally.