08-30-07

Media Release

Oregon Sea Grant Director Malouf Announces Retirement

CORVALLIS, Ore. – Oregon Sea Grant director Robert E. Malouf has announced his retirement after 16 years leading the marine research, outreach, and education program based at Oregon State University.

Malouf has had overall responsibility for all of Sea Grant's activities, including its competitive grants, the visitor center of the OSU Hatfield Marine Science Center, and active programs in communication, education and extension. Oregon Sea Grant employs more than 40 people on a budget that exceeds $5 million in state and federal funds annually.

The national recruitment and selection process for Malouf’s successor has recently begun, said John Cassady, OSU vice president for research.

Malouf, a native of Montana, began his affiliation with Oregon Sea Grant in the program’s first year, 1968, when he received support as a new OSU master’s student in fisheries. After earning his Ph.D. in fisheries from Oregon State he joined the faculty of the Marine Sciences Research Center of the State University of New York at Stony Brook. While there from 1977 to 1991 he taught courses in marine fisheries, shellfisheries, and aquaculture. In 1987 he was named director of the New York Sea Grant Institute; he held that position until he succeeded Oregon Sea Grant’s original director, William Wick, on Wick’s retirement in 1991.

Under Malouf’s leadership, Oregon Sea Grant has been consistently ranked as the best Sea Grant program in the nation in formal reviews.

The national review panel cited the program as demonstrating several national “best management practices,” including strategic planning, decision-making, and program integration, all articulated and developed by Malouf.

For more than 10 years Malouf served as a member of Oregon’s Ocean Policy Advisory Council and chaired the council's Scientific and Technical Advisory Committee. He has had numerous leadership positions with other state and national organizations.