Dr Julie Hall, of NIWA Hamilton, has been elected secretary of the international committee of the Washington DC-based Scientific Committee on Oceanic Research (SCOR).
Julie is the first woman officer of SCOR, which was established in 1957 and is the world's leading non-governmental organisation for the promotion and co-ordination of international oceanographic activities.
She said today that the work of SCOR falls into two major categories. The first of these involves 15 small international working groups which address focused scientific issues that will benefit from a co-operative research effort, such as marine phtyoplankton studies, global climate regulation and new technologies for observing marine life.
Longer-term complex activities such as the planning and implementation of large scale research programmes are overseen by specially established SCOR committees.
Julie said scientific issues canvassed during the 25th general meeting of SCOR earlier this month included world fisheries harvest levels, biodiversity of marine ecosystems, standards for surveying marine plankton and new and innovative technologies for observing the marine environment.