New Program Officers
Office of Polar Programs
Antarctic Science Division
National Science Foundation
The National Science Foundation's Office of Polar Programs announces
that three new Program Officers will soon be joining the Division of
Antarctic Sciences:
Dr. James Swift, Program Director for Antarctic Research and Logistics
Integration, begins his work with OPP/ANT on 19 December 2011, and NSF
anticipates having him in the Division as a rotator through December
2012. During his career in oceanography, Jim has had the opportunity to
conduct research while developing expertise in coordinating the support
needed to effectively conduct field research. Participating in 32 marine
expeditions, many in the polar regions, he has focused his research on
the circulation of the deep oceans. He has had a significant role in
large, international, and interdisciplinary data collection projects,
such as the World Ocean Circulation Experiment and the Climate
Variability and Predictability program. Dr. Swift has been associated
with University of California, San Diego/Scripps Institution of
Oceanography since 1980, when he began there as a postdoctoral research
oceanographer. He is currently a Research Oceanographer and Academic
Administrator at Scripps. He has had broad experience with the Office of
Polar Programs (OPP) and the U.S. Antarctic Program through his research
and participation as a member and chair of the OPP Advisory Committee, a
member of the Antarctic Research Vessel Oversight Committee, and a
member and co-chair of the OPP McMurdo Resupply Subcommittee. He has
also served as a member of the Alaska Region Research Vessel Advisory
Committee and of the National Academy of Sciences/National Research
Council Polar Research Board. For his service to the international ocean
science community, he received in 2011 the American Geophysical Union's
Ocean Sciences Award. Dr. Swift received his bachelor's degree in
physics from Case Western Reserve University and his master's and
doctoral degrees in physical oceanography from the University of
Washington.
Dr. Sonia Esperanca, Program Director for Antarctic Integrated System
Science will join the Division on 9 January 2012, on a temporary detail
from the Division of Earth Sciences at NSF. Sonia, currently Program
Director for Petrology and Geochemistry in NSF's Division of Earth
Sciences, Geosciences Directorate (GEO), brings broad experience in
teaching, research, science policy, and research management to the
Program. While at NSF, she has served as the GEO representative to
NSF-wide programs that contribute to developing a more diverse
scientific workforce and that facilitate and encourage interdisciplinary
research. Prior coming to NSF, she held research and teaching positions
in geology and geochemistry at Old Dominion University in Virginia, at
the School of Aquatic Sciences and Environmental Management, Deakin
University in Victoria, Australia, in the Department of Earth Sciences,
Monash University in Victoria Australia, and at the Department of
Geology, University of Maryland. Dr. Esperanca received her bachelor's
degree in geology from Rice University; her master's degree in geology
from Hebrew University in Jerusalem, Israel; and her Ph.D. from Arizona
State University.
Dr. Diana Nemergut, Program Director for Antarctic Organisms &
Ecosystems, will join the Division in March 2012 to begin a rotational
assignment at the Foundation. Diana is an Assistant Professor in the
Environmental Studies Program and the Institute of Arctic and Alpine
Research (INSTAAR), University of Colorado, Boulder. Her research is on
microbial organisms and their role in ecosystem processes. Early in her
career, her work focused on microbiology in cold regions, but she has
expanded this work to include the tropics and subtropics. Dr. Nemergut's
work at INSTAAR has given her experience working in a multidisciplinary
research environment, and through her lab group she has conducted field
research in remote areas of the world, including Alaska. She received
her bachelor's degree in biology from the University of New Orleans and
her doctoral degree in ecology and environmental biology from the
University of Colorado.