WILLIAM CORSO NAMED DEPUTY ASSISTANT ADMINISTRATOR OF NOAA’S OCEAN SERVICE

William Corso, from Pass Christian, Miss., has been appointed as the new deputy assistant administrator for NOAA's National Ocean Service. Corso will officially assume his duties on November 20.

“Corso brings experience and vision to support the efforts of NOAA’s oceans service as a provider of both research leadership and product and services essential for NOAA to achieve its goals and mission,” said Vice Admiral Conrad C. Lautenbacher Jr., U.S. Navy (Ret.) undersecretary of Commerce for oceans and atmosphere and NOAA administrator.

“I’m delighted that William Corso will be joining the ocean service team," said John H. (Jack) Dunnigan, assistant administrator of NOAA’s Ocean Service. “He brings an exceptional wealth of management and information technology experience from his career within government, industry, academia, and non-profit settings. His skills at building partnerships and program administration are hallmarks of his leadership.”

Corso has spent the past seven years working for Lockheed Martin. Currently, he directs the diversified projects group at Stennis Space Center, Bay St. Louis, Miss. He is responsible for cost, schedule, and technical performance of programs supporting government agencies at the Center, including software development in support of naval oceanographic operations worldwide and contributions to the conceptual design of the Integrated Ocean Observing System. Corso also has been director of Lockheed Martin’s remote sensing program, which provided scientific, engineering, information technology, and outreach support to NASA’s earth science applications and commercial remote sensing programs. Prior to coming to Stennis, Corso was senior geophysicist and managed a group that supported the United States Environmental Protection Agency’s environmental response team which responds to oil spills and other hazardous material events, among other duties.

Corso’s government experience was as an oceanographer with the United States Army Corps of Engineers’ New York district. His primary responsibility there was evaluating 19 aquatic containment options for the safe and effective disposal of approximately six million cubic yards per year of contaminated dredge material from the Port of New York and New Jersey. Additional responsibilities included an environmental assessment of the Hudson River and estuary from Albany south to New York City, and environmental assessments of beach replenishment projects along the New Jersey and New York shorelines. A federal agency and academic partnership that Corso helped to establish while at the Corps resulted in the first comprehensive benthic, geophysical, and geological map of New York harbor and New York bight.

Corso’s marine education experiences include directing education and research at the New Jersey Marine Science Consortium/New Jersey Sea Grant College, where he oversaw K-12 field programs, K-12 teacher training programs, and 64 higher education courses offered through the consortium’s 29 member universities and colleges. Corso also was an assistant professor of marine science at Stockton State College, and served as a senior scientist for the Sea Education Association (SEA) in Woods Hole, Mass. At Stockton, he focused on coastal phenomena in and around the Great Bay/Mullica National Estuarine Research Reserve. While at SEA, he led seven international, blue-water cruises, including transatlantic and transcaribbean missions, that integrated physical, chemical, biological, and geological oceanographic projects.

A native of New York City, Corso holds a doctorate in geophysics from the University of Texas, a master's of science in marine geology and geophysics from the University of Miami, and a bachelor’s in 1979 from Adelphi University, where he majored in earth sciences. He is currently completing a master's in public administration at Fairleigh Dickinson University.

Corso and his wife Adrienne have two children, Andrew and Jack.

NOAA's Ocean Service is dedicated to ensuring sustainable and productive oceans and coasts, for ecology, heritage and economy.
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In 2007 the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, an agency of the U.S. Commerce Department, celebrates 200 years of science and service to the nation. From the establishment of the Survey of the Coast in 1807 by Thomas Jefferson to the formation of the Weather Bureau and the Bureau of Commercial Fisheries in the 1870s, much of America's scientific heritage is rooted in NOAA.

NOAA is dedicated to enhancing economic security and national safety through the prediction and research of weather and climate-related events and information service delivery for transportation, and by providing environmental stewardship of our nation's coastal and marine resources. Through the emerging Global Earth Observation System of Systems (GEOSS), NOAA is working with its federal partners, more than 60 countries and the European Commission to develop a global monitoring network that is as integrated as the planet it observes, predicts and protects.

On the Web:

NOAA: http://www.noaa.gov

NOAA Ocean Service: http://oceanservice.noaa.gov/