SecretariatThe SCOR Secretariat is responsible for the day-to-day administration of SCOR activities, taking its guidance from the General Meetings, Executive Committee Meetings, and communication with the Executive Committee and Nominated Members. This communication includes frequent contacts with national committees and chairs of SCOR subsidiary bodies and organizations. The Secretariat is also responsible for the administration of SCOR finances, organization of the meetings of SCOR and its subsidiary bodies, management of a program of travel grants, and preparation of SCOR publications. The SCOR Secretariat is located at the Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences Tel: +1-410-516-4070 Dr. Edward R. Urban, Jr., Executive Director B.A.
(1979), University of California, Los Angeles
Ms. Elizabeth (Liz) Gross, Finance Officer Ms. Havely Taylor, Adminstrative Assistant Questions or Comments? |
Ed Urban’s graduate research focused on the culture of oysters and
clams, development of inexpensive feeds for these animals, and creation of
bioeconomic models to compare aquaculture diets. He served as a Sea Grant
Fellow, Staff Officer, and later Senior Staff Officer at the U.S. National
Research Council’s Ocean Studies Board from 1989 to 2000. At the National
Research Council, Dr. Urban was the director of more than 20 studies,
focused in the areas of fisheries science and policy, coastal science and
policy, the infrastructure of ocean science in the United States, and means
to improve cooperation of U.S. and foreign ocean scientists. Dr. Urban served as staff for the U.S. National Committee to SCOR
from 1997 to 2000 and has served as the SCOR Executive Director since October 2000.
I
am known as “Liz” to nearly everyone. I received a Master of Science degree in Marine Science at McGill
University in Montreal in 1972. My research focused on the distribution and
reproductive ecology of calanoid copepods in the western basin of the Arctic
Ocean. Unfortunately, in those days it was extremely difficult for women to
work in the field in the Arctic, and I had to work with samples collected by
my supervisor and one of his male graduate students! Although some aspects
of this work gave rise to questions that I still find intriguing, I decided
not to pursue a Ph.D. degree and the traditional research career. After
teaching first-year Biology at McGill for three years, I became
“Biologiste” (or Assistant Curator) at l’Aquarium de Montréal and the
affiliated Jardin Zoologique. I had special responsibility for educational
programs, but enjoyed the annual collecting trip to Barbados nevertheless! A
family move to Nova Scotia took me to Dalhousie University and another
Biology teaching job—this one involved a course for 800 students! It was
here that I began to enjoy administrative work and in 1979 I jumped at the
opportunity to become the departmental administrator in the Oceanography
Department, thereby coming back to my original field of interest, in a way.
In 1980, SCOR decided to move its Secretariat to Canada from the United
Kingdom, and to Dalhousie University in particular. I was so fortunate to be
in the “right place at the right time” and was appointed Executive
Secretary of SCOR. It was a very part-time job then and I combined it with
my university responsibilities. But this gradually became impossible as SCOR
grew, and by 1985 I was working full-time for SCOR, becoming Executive
Director in 1990. Ten years later, I chose to “retire” in order to enjoy
a less hectic life-style, but I am delighted to be able to maintain an
affiliation with SCOR as a part-time Finance Officer.
Havely Taylor has an undergraduate degree in English from Indiana University. Her undergraduate thesis
focused on five pieces of literature examining the effects of westernization on some of the indigenous
people of Africa. Later, in 1992, she received a graduate degree in painting from Boston University.
Since then, she has been a book
editor, teacher, portrait artist, and mother. Freelance bookkeeping for small businesses led her to
SCOR, where she helps with the office's financial transactions as well as other administrative duties.
She is quite pleased to be contributing to the efforts of scientists doing ocean research across the globe.