{"id":13665,"date":"2018-02-08T12:00:08","date_gmt":"2018-02-08T17:00:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/esa.org\/esablog\/?p=13665"},"modified":"2018-02-08T12:00:08","modified_gmt":"2018-02-08T17:00:08","slug":"catherine-oriordan-joins-esa-as-new-executive-director","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/esa.org\/esablog\/2018\/02\/08\/catherine-oriordan-joins-esa-as-new-executive-director\/","title":{"rendered":"Catherine O\u2019Riordan joins ESA as new Executive Director"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"CathyThe ESA Governing Board announced today that Dr. Catherine O\u2019Riordan, interim co-CEO and chief operating officer of the American Institute of Physics (AIP), will join the Society\u2019s staff as its new executive director on April 16. O\u2019Riordan, an ocean scientist and highly accomplished association executive, will be only the third executive director in ESA\u2019s 100+ year history.<\/p>\n

\u201cI am excited about this opportunity to lead ESA in furthering its important mission: disseminating knowledge, building strong communities of ecologists, and increasing the understanding among policy makers and the public of the role ecology plays in solving pressing global challenges,\u201d O\u2019Riordan said. \u201cThe science of ecology is becoming even more interdisciplinary, and ESA members connect all of the facets of the field.\u201d<\/p>\n

O\u2019Riordan has deep roots in the ecological research community, as well as in interdisciplinary science. Originally trained as an engineer, she developed physical and numerical models of ecological and biological systems to better understand river and estuary ecosystems.<\/p>\n

Following an extensive search, ESA\u2019s Governing Board unanimously selected O\u2019Riordan from an outstanding field of candidates because of her rare combination of leadership experience with scientific associations, excellent program management and business skills, knowledge of public policy, and background with research.<\/p>\n

ESA President Richard Pouyat remarked, \u201cI am very excited by the energy and leadership experience Cathy brings to ESA. Given the many societal challenges we face today, she is well poised to lead ESA in identifying science-based solutions for the environment that also provide benefits for human well-being.\u201d<\/p>\n

In her role as AIP\u2019s Interim co-CEO, O\u2019Riordan oversees AIP\u2019s programs and activities including services to its ten Member Societies, Physics Today<\/em> magazine, and other news, education, awards, advocacy, and history programs. She came to AIP from the Consortium for Ocean Leadership in Washington, D.C., where she directed ocean research and education programs including U.S. participation in the Integrated Ocean Drilling Program, an international program of basic research in marine geosciences. Prior to that, she led public affairs and other programs at the American Geophysical Union.<\/p>\n

\u201cO\u2019Riordan is uniquely qualified to bring scientists and policy makers together. She also prioritizes expanding inclusivity and diversity within the science of ecology,\u201d Pouyat commented.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

For O\u2019Riordan, the opportunity to lead at ESA continues a lifetime commitment to scientific achievement, advancing scientific policy, and broadening opportunities for participation. \u201cI look forward to working with the ecological community to raise ecology\u2019s profile and cultivate a diverse group of students to become the next generation of ecologists,\u201d O\u2019Riordan said.<\/p>\n

Following her Bachelor of Science in mechanical engineering, O\u2019Riordan collaborated with ecologists and biologists to study the impact of pollution on water quality and the ecosystem in Massachusetts before attending graduate school in water resources and civil engineering. She studied the concentration boundary layers that form above benthic bivalves, in the turbulent flow regimes found in estuaries.\u00a0While conducting research in France for six years, she investigated the transport of organic material and sediments in the Seine River and estuary. She also has experience in numerical modeling of geochemical cycles in Mediterranean coastal waters as part of a multi-nation collaboration in the European Union.<\/p>\n

O\u2019Riordan holds a B.S. in Mechanical Engineering from Case Western Reserve University and an M.S. and Ph.D. in Civil Engineering, Water Resources, and Environmental Fluid Mechanics from Stanford University.<\/p>\n

She succeeds Katherine S. McCarter, who served with distinction as ESA\u2019s executive director from 1997 until the beginning of this year. Upon her retirement in January, ESA\u2019s Board bestowed McCarter with the title of executive director emeritus.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The ESA Governing Board announced today that Dr. Catherine O\u2019Riordan, interim co-CEO and chief operating officer of the American Institute of Physics (AIP), will join the Society\u2019s staff as its new executive director on April 16. O\u2019Riordan, an ocean scientist and highly accomplished association executive, will be only the third executive director in ESA\u2019s 100+ year history. \u201cI am excited…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":36,"featured_media":13666,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[87],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-13665","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news-events"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/esa.org\/esablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13665","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/esa.org\/esablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/esa.org\/esablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/esa.org\/esablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/36"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/esa.org\/esablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13665"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/esa.org\/esablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13665\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/esa.org\/esablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/13666"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/esa.org\/esablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13665"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/esa.org\/esablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13665"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/esa.org\/esablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13665"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}