Russell A. Moll has been named as the new director of California Sea Grant, part
of NOAA's National Sea Grant College Program.

"This is very good for California Sea Grant and for the national program as well," said Ronald Baird, director of the National Sea Grant Program in Silver Spring, Md.
"Russ has served Sea Grant well in the past and I look forward to more good things from him in his new position."

Moll, who is president of the Sea Grant Association, also has served as director of the Michigan Sea Grant Program since 1997. He previously was assistant director of the Michigan program for eight years. During his tenure as director of the University of Michigan/NOAA Cooperative Institute for Limnology and Ecosystems Research in Ann Arbor, Mich., the organization grew to more than 70 affiliated scientists. Moll also spent two years as associate program director for the Biological Oceanography Program of the National Science Foundation in Washington, D.C.

"Dr. Moll brings extensive, valuable experience that seems tailor-made for our Sea Grant program in California," said Robert Shelton, vice provost for research of the University of California, who made the announcement.

Moll has traveled, studied, and published extensively on the Great Lakes, nearshore marine environment, and temperate and tropical rivers. He earned his Ph.D. degree in 1974 from the State University of New York at Stony Brook.

California Sea Grant, one of 29 university-based programs in a national network around the country, is based at Scripps Institution of Oceanography at U.C. San Diego in La Jolla, Calif.

Congress established the National Sea Grant College Program in 1966. It became part of NOAA when that agency was established in 1970. Sea Grant programs focus on marine and coastal issues, such as water quality, environmental studies, seafood safety, coastal hazards and public safety, marine policy, fisheries and aquaculture, and biotechnology.