Dr. Rick Spinrad has been chosen by U.S. President Joe Biden to head NOAA, pending Senate confirmation.

He is currently a professor of oceanography at Oregon State University. In 2016, he retired as chief scientist of NOAA, where he had been appointed by President Barack Obama in 2014.

Among his accomplishments, Spinrad was a co-lead of the White House Committee that developed the nation’s first set of ocean research priorities and oversaw the revamping of NOAA’s research enterprise.

Spinrad served as the U.S. permanent representative to the United Nations’ Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission from 2005 to 2009.

He is the recipient of Presidential Rank Awards from Presidents George W. Bush and Barack Obama. Spinrad is also a past president of The Oceanography Society and the Marine Technology Society (MTS). He is a fellow of the American Meteorological Society, MTS, and the Institute of Marine Engineering, Science and Technology (IMarEST), and an IMarEST Chartered Marine Scientist.