John Orcutt also accepts post on President Bush’s ocean policy commission

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John Orcutt, a professor of geophysics at Scripps Institution of Oceanography at the University of California, San Diego, has been voted president-elect of the American Geophysical Union (AGU).

Currently general secretary of AGU, Orcutt will become president-elect
on July 1, 2002, and will assume the presidency of the 39,000-member organization on July 1, 2004. The current president-elect, Robert Dickinson of Georgia Tech, becomes president on July 1, 2002, succeeding Marcia McNutt of the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute.

AGU Union officers, including the immediate past president, the executive director, and section presidents and presidents-elect constitute the Council, AGU’s governing body.

Orcutt also recently accepted an appointment on the Scientific Advisory Panel of the U.S. Commission on Ocean Policy.

Mandated by the Oceans Act of 2000, the U.S. Commission on Ocean Policy is charged with reviewing the effects of federal ocean-related laws and programs. This federal legislation requires the commission to establish findings and make recommendations for reducing duplication, improving efficiency, enhancing cooperation and modifying the structure of federal agencies involved in the world’s oceans.

Following the procedures from the Oceans Act, President Bush appointed 16 commissioners, 12 of whom were selected from a list nominated by Congress.

The commission will present its findings and recommendations in a final report to Congress and the President in the spring of 2003.

Orcutt is director of the Cecil H. and Ida M. Green Institute of Geophysics and Planetary Physics at Scripps.

His major areas of research are marine seismology applied to both crustal and mantle structure, particularly seismic tomography, long-term ocean observations and wireless networking related to observations, theoretical seismology, acoustic-elastic interactions, and applications of seismology to monitoring of nuclear tests. He has been the chief scientist on more than 20 oceanographic expeditions.

Orcutt is the Secretary of the Navy/Chief of Naval Operations Oceanography Chair. He has been a member of the Defense Science Board Task Force on Underground Facilities; chair of the Consortium for Ocean Research and Education (CORE) Public Affairs Committee; and president of Joint Oceanographic Institutions, Inc. As a member of MEDEA, he worked on the declassification of Navy environmental data including GEOSAT satellite altimetry data and marine magnetics. Orcutt has also served as a member of the NRC Ocean Studies Board and was chairman of its Navy Committee for three years. He is vice chair of the CORE/NSF Dynamics of Earth and Ocean Systems (DEOS) Steering Committee and a member of the NSF Geosciences Advisory Committee. He was awarded the Maurice Ewing Medal by the U.S. Navy and AGU in 1994.

Orcutt is a fellow of AGU, and a member of the Seismological Society of America and Society of Exploration Geophysicists.

Orcutt received a B.A. from the U.S. Naval Academy, a MSc. from the University of Liverpool (Fulbright Scholar), and a Ph.D. from Scripps Institution of Oceanography. He has authored more than 139 peer-reviewed publications, more than 45 in AGU journals, and has received numerous academic honors and awards. In 1998, he was named UCSD Alumnus of the Year.


Scripps Institution of Oceanography at the University of California, San Diego, is one of the oldest, largest, and most important centers for global science research and graduate training in the world. The scientific scope of the institution has grown since its founding in 1903. A century of Scripps science has had an invaluable impact on oceanography, on understanding of the earth, and on society. More than 300 research programs are under way today in a wide range of scientific areas. Scripps operates one of the largest U.S. academic fleets with four oceanographic research ships and one research platform for worldwide exploration.

Now plunging boldly into the 21st century, Scripps will celebrate its centennial in 2003.

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American Geophysical Union

Cecil H. and Ida M. Green Institute of Geophysics and Planetary Physics

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