Duke University Marine Laboratory Vol. 8, No. 1, Spring 1990

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Dr. JosephS. Ramus has been named Director of Duke University Marine Laboratory, and has been assigned the task of leading the Lab to what he calls "a new level of quality in research and education."

Dr. Ramus has been serving as Acting Director and as a member of the search team looking for a permanent director.

When the search team formed, the goal was to hire someone from outside the Duke community.

"It is very difficult for an " incumbent" to leverage resources for new programs," Dr. Ramus said after signing papers that confirmed his appointment. "Many times, it can only be done by someone from out­side, and that was our intention."

But, he said, after narrowing the field of candidates for director to six people, "it became clear that matchmaking would be difficult."

"It was at that point that I decided to throw my hat in the ring," Dr. Ramus said.

Concurrently Lab officials were work­ing with Duke officials on a five-year pro­gram for the Lab and the Durham campus.

That eventually evolved into an excit­ing plan for the Lab and the Duke campus to jointly offer an entirely new program in oceanography and limnology, a decision that greatly increased Dr. Ramus' interest in the director's post.

"Duke will form the program and it will function as an academic department be­tween Beaufort (Pivers Island) and Dur­ham," Dr. Ramus said.

This will make the Lab more of a

. JOSEPH S. RAMUS ECTO OF DU E LAB

by BradRich

University resource. The oceanography and limnology program will be able to hire its own faculty and someday offer its own degree.

In the past, Duke did not offer an oceanography degree. Instead, many graduate students majored in other sub­jects, such as botany, with emphasis on

Cont. on page 3

DUMLCU By Helen Nearing

DR. MUNUSAMY ARUMUGAM is a lecturer from the University of Madras, India. He has been at DUML since April 1989 working with the Bonaventuras on respiratory proteins of humans and marine organisms.

DR. JOE BONA VENTURA was in­vited to be plenary speaker at the Centen­nial meeting of the American Society of Zoologists in December. Joe and Celia also won a prize at the Simple Green Christmas party, dressed as Mr. and Mrs. Dickens. Congratulations are also in order for their promotions to Full Profes­sors with tenure in the Department of Cell Biology.

DR. MARIUS BROUWER presented some of his data on the physiology and biochemistry of copper in crabs at the 1989 International Chemical Congress of Pacific Basin Societies (PACIFICHEM '89) which was held in Honolulu, in December.

DR. ANTHONY CLARE began work in January on a Sea Grant project to develop liposomes as a food for larval fin­fish. Tony was a guest speaker at Rohm & Haas, Co., Philadelphia in February, in connection with his research on arthropod molting hormones.

DR. JOHN COSTLOW has assumed the duties of Coordinator for the NSF Minority Program at DUML. He has also accepted the responsibility to direct the development of the newly established Cooperative Institute of Fisheries Oceanography, a consortium involving the Consolidated University of North Carolina, Duke University, the National Marine Fisheries Laboratory, and NOAA. CIFO is designed to develop inter- institu­tional and interdisciplinary research beyond the scope of the individual research groups.

The DUML community received with sadness the news of the death of PROFES­SOR DENNIS J. CRISP, University Col­lege of North Wales, Bangor, Wales. Dr. Crisp had visited DUML on a number of occasions for research and teaching.

MONA DEVRIES successfully defended her dissertation March 22nd. She will begin a Postdoctoral Research

TS Associate position in the Department of Marine, Earth and Atmospheric Sciences at North Carolina State University in April working with Dr. Donna Wolcott on the physiological ecology of land crabs.

DR. BRUCE FINNEY took part in the American Geophysical Union meeting in San Francisco, and then participated in Tom Johnson's paleoclimate expedition to Lake Turkana, Kenya.

LINDA FRANKLIN, MARK GEESEY, BILL HENLEY, BRUCE KENNEY, MIKE KINGSTON, GUY LEV A VASSEUR, and JOE RAMUS presented research reports at the October Southeastern Phycological Colloquy in Wilmington.

DR. DON GERHART spent the month of February at the Karpata Ecological Cen­ter in Bonaire (Netherlands Antilles) studying mimicry, warning coloration, and anti-predator defenses in the flamingo­tongue snail Cyphoma gibbosum.

DR. PAUL HEARTY recently returned from a multi-faceted research tour of Africa and Europe. His travels involved a stop at ETH - Zurich, then on to Nairobi to meet the Turkana Expedition. Returning via Europe, he made stops in Dusseldorf, Brussels, London, Cambridge and Aberystwyth (Wales) to visit with and pro­vide lectures to colleagues.

ERIC HOLM successfully defended his dissertation March 23rd.

CAROLA HOLSTROM a Ph.D. stu­dent visited DUML to work with Dan Rit­tschof on the interaction between invertebrate larvae and bacteria. Carola is from the Department of General and Marine Microbiology, Gtlteborg, Sweden

DR. TOM JOHNSON has returned from five weeks in East Africa. He spent 10 days at Lake Turkana in northern Kenya, collecting sediment and water samples for a study of climatic ·change spanning the last three hundred years. The field party included JOHN HALFMAN, PATRICK NG 'ANG' A, RICHARD SEALE, (Co-Chairman of the DUML Board of Advisors) CINDY PILSKALN and KA1E WHITTAKER. The Beaufort crowd had their base camp at Koobi Fora -it was just like being at the Dock House except there were hippos, crocodiles, scor-

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pions, tsetse flies, topi and zebra. Tom, Cindy and Kate then went on to Malawi to recover and re-deploy Cindy's sediment trap for its third year.

DR. BRUCE KENNEY is serving as the NSF-sponsored Minority Education Program Mentor-in-Residence for the Spring Term; he is "dad" to all of the undergraduates.

DR. GUY LEV A VASSEUR is a visit­ing researcher collaborating with Bill Hen­ley, Barry Osmond, and Joe Ramus on an NSF-funded grant titled "Photoinhibition and the Ecology of Marine Microalgae." He is from the French National Center of Scientific Research, Roscoff, France. He works on ecophysiology of seaweeds, especially pigment protein complexes of green seaweeds.

DRS. PATRICIA MCCLELLAN­GREEN, DAN SCHLENK and RICHARD WINN join Duke University Marine Laboratory as Postdoctoral Re­search Fellows of the Integrated Toxicol­ogy Program. The program focuses on molecular explanations of pollutant ef­fects. These researchers greatly enhance ongoing marine molecular biology ac­tivities at the Lab.

In October DR. SONIA ORTEGA began a one-year position with the Nation­al Science Foundation as a Program Manager in the Division of Research In­itiation and Improvement. She's in charge of the Minority Research Initiation (MRI) Program.

DR. JOHN SUTHERLAND is a speaker at a symposium in Sao Paulo, Brazil, in April. He will give a paper titled "Consequences of recruitment variation on rocky shores of the eastern Pacific Ocean."

CURTIS ODEN was back on board for the cruise in March, fully recovered from his foot injury. One change in the DUN­CDC staff is that JEAN MARIE MCMANUS has left for a position at N.C. State with plans to enter a graduate pro­gram.

DR. REBECCA J. VAN BENEDEN was an invited speaker at the International Association for the Comparative Study of Leukemia, Vail, Colorado in October.

COLO IAL APARTMENTS

A visiting scholar at Duke University Marine Laboratory has a lot to think about: seminar schedules, lab space, meetings, equipment, transportation and travel, as well as finding housing for the family, to name a few things.

If all goes as planned, there soon will be one less worry on the scholars' mind. Duke Trustees recently approved a three­phase Colonial Apartments development project, which will be highlighted by the construction of new visiting faculty apartments in nearby Beaufort.

Key to the project is a $523,000 grant from the Lynde and Harry Bradley Foun­dation of Milwaukee, WI. When com­pleted, the project will include seven new faculty apartments, restoration of the current Colonial Apartments and

By: Scott Taylor

waterfront docks with boat slips.

Phase I, the Bradley International House, will be a complex of seven modern apartments, designed by ar­chitect Seth Hiller, on a lot just north of the existing Colonial Apartments facing Moore Street.

Construction could begin as early as the Fall of 1990, with occupancy by Spring of 1991.

Phase n includes historic renovation

Dr .. JosephS .. Ramus cont. from page 1

oceanography. Now both options will be possible. Students will take classes in Dur­ham and on Pivers Island. But, Dr. Ramus said, the new program should make the Lab "more firmly anchored into the fiber of the University." effectively ending a return to the financial difficulties that occured several years ago when Duke officials were questioning the commitment of the main campus to the Lab.

"It's very firm commitment to the future of the program," Dr. Ramus said.

In effect, Dr. Ramus said, "the Univer­sity is priming the pump, grubstaking us to a new level of quality. This is seed money. Eventually, we'll have to stablize oursel­ves."

The future financial picture is brighter than it has been in the past.

Dr. Ramus said that when the last budget crisis occurred at the Lab, there was no endowment fund for the facility.

"Now the endowment is close to $5 million and our goal is $15 million," he said.

"I hope to be able to announce two

major gifts to the program soon. We're seeing more and more opporuntities for endowments."

The new five-year program for the Lab also calls for increased emphasis on studies and research of marine toxicology and biotechnology.

Marine toxicology is the impact of pol­lutants on the natural environment, while biotechnology is the application ofbiologi­cal principles to applied processes.

But don't think the Duke Lab will out­grow itself or forget its important role in the community.

While Dr. Ramus sees a need to rebuild a building that burned ten years ago, he doesn't envision the facility becoming anywhere near as large as the one at Woods Hole, Massachusetts.

"We'll be doing a better job at what we've been doing in the past, but we'll still be relatively small," he said.

Ideally, Dr. Ramus said, the Lab wants to have about forty undergraduate students per term. There were 34 undergrads this fall, but there are usually fewer than 15

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and remodeling of the Colonial Apart­ments and the Carpenter House into luxury townhouses, which will be placed on the open market for sale upon comple­tion.

Phase ill, which is still in the early planning stage, will be the construction of a boat dock, with up to fifteen slips, south of Colonial Apartments on Taylor's Creek.

Duke feels the project is an "all- win" plan. Duke will gain modem housing and income. The Town of Beaufort and Carteret County will see an increased tax base with the historic renovation and private ownership of the Colonial Apart­ments. The buyers will acquire a valuable part of historic Beaufort.

during the spring term.

"We want about forty students on a consistent basis," he said. "We think we can handle forty and offer a high quality education."

Dr. Ramus has been a teacher at the Lab since 1978. While teaching oceanography and marine science, he has been engaged in research. He describes himself as an algal physiologist, investigating estuarine processes and biotechnology.

Prior to coming to Duke, he was a biol­ogy professor for ten years at Yale Univer­sity in New Haven, Connecticut.

He began his undergraduate training in engineering at the University of California, Berkeley, and earned his Ph.D. in botany from the same institution.

Dr. Ramus is married to Jackie Paul, a native of Carteret County. There are three sons, baby Aaron in the home, Joshua who is a junior at Yale, and Seth who is a senior at the University of California, Berkeley ..... and says Dr. Ramus, "Aaron seems destined for Duke."

EM

It's 3 o'clock in the morning, and the phone next to Norris Hill's bed rings an all to familar ring.

"What could it be this time?'' Norris thinks. "A broken seawater pump in Lab 7? A frre?"

Norris jumps to his feet and grabs the phone, only to hear a dial tone.

"Come back to bed, dear," says Kitty his wife of 40 years. "It's only another dream."

Actually, "job" isn't the best way to describe Norris' relationship over the years with the Lab. Words like friendship, partnership - perhaps even marriage - come to mind.

Norris came to DUML in 1955, fresh out of the Army, to take the job as island caretaker. His first impression was that it looked too much like an Army camp. But he sure has taken care of that image as he has taken care of so many other things over the years.

He's captained the boats, mowed the lawn, painted the buildings, answered the phone and even cooked meals for the DUML community.

On his own unti11959 when he hired James Willis, Norris did just about everything.

"We had five direct hits from hur­ricanes in the first five years I was here, three in the first year," Norris said.

He stayed on the island during the storms, and remembers them well.

"You don't forget those things," he said, as he pointed to the high water marks around the island.

Over the years he has become a local "Farmer's Almanac" on storms. Some say he speaks with more authority and accuracy than the National Weather Ser­vice.

If hurricanes weren't enough to test him, there was the fire during a severe ice storm in February 1979. Lab 4 was fully ablaze by 2 that winter morning, and the adjacent buildings were threatened by

CY, By: Scott Taylor

the flames.

Norris was seen standing his ground, with fire hose in hand and icicles hanging from his arms, to protect the other build­ings.

Those things are seen by some as heroic, but it is the smaller details that tell the true story.

"There used to be only one phone on the island. The line was run over poles stuck in the mud," Norris recalled. "One day there was a storm, and the phone went out. I had to go out and reset all the poles."

In addition to looking after Lab facilities and the family Norris raised here, he took care of the DUML people, too.

"Norris was here for everyone," said Lab Director, Joe Ramus.

In 1981 a snowstorm hit Carteret County, and the power was out for 36 hours. No one could leave the island, and no one could get to those who were stranded there, including a group of stu­dents.

Norris gathered the students and some blankets and took them to a conference room, the only room on the island with

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gas heat. He fired up the gas kitchen stoves and fed the students for two days until help finally reached DUML.

Norris received a special commenda­tion that year from Duke President Terry Sanford.

That, too, was one of the more memorable times Norris has stepped in to help the Lab and its people. You can't forget all the trips he made to bus stations and the hospital and the many late night searches for lost or missing students.

So what does a man do when he retires from a job and leaves a home he has had for all his adult life?

"Work on my house," he said of his Russell's Creek ancestral home. "I've got a lot to tend to - shrubs, flowers, 18 pecans trees and a garden to plant."

That sounds a lot like what he's done all these years.

"Yeah, I like to piddle around," he said.

Although he started out as "caretaker" and his job titles changed to include Maintenance Supervisor and Manager of the Physical Plant, Norris truly has been over the years what he was in the begin­ning - caretaker of us all.

' NOW MY T A TERS''

Taters come in many forms for Clif­ton Davis, the new head of maintenance at DUML. · There are the Irish and Sweet taters Cliff grew in his youth. Then there are the taters of Clifton's Marine Lab years.

Plumbing, cabinetmaking, boat­building, seamanship and even elevator repair hang on Clifton's tool belt of knowledge. Any way you look at it, Clifton knows his "taters," as he says

By: Scott Taylor

about most anything he does and does well.

It was his in-depth knowledge of his taters' that made Clifton the logical choice to fill fellow Marshall berger Nor­ris Hill's shoes as maintenance chief.

"There's simply nothing Clifton can't do," said one co-worker.

Norris hired Clifton in April1963 as a plumber, a position Clifton intended to

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keep a month or so to pay off some debts. But, 27 years later, and many job titles down the road, Clifton found himself moving in permanently.

"If something breaks that Clifton isn't sure how to fix, he'll take it apart piece by piece to see how it works. The men sure respect him," added another D UML staffer.

Clifton's abilities are not limited to his craftsmanship and problem- solving skills. He has a way with people, too. He's not without a smile for long, no matter what, or who, he's facing.

At every DUML family function, Clifton will be there -usually with a horseshoe in his hand and a country song on his lips. Deejays working DUML parties would be at a loss without Cliff's lists of country tunes. And, his love for that music style surely led to this com­ment: "Cliff could fix anything, even a broken heart."

Clifton and his wife, Louise, soon will be moving to Pivers Island, taking up residence at the house the Hills lived in before him, to become even more a part ofthehomehe adopted "temporarily" 27 years ago.

How will it feel living in Norris' house?

"Louise will have it looking like our home in no time," he said.

If there ever was a doubt in anyone's mind what would happen when Norris Hill retired, those concerns are quickly melting away.

We couldn't have found a more capable and fitting person for the job. If there's a problem, Cliff will solve it. If there's an emergency, Cliff will handle it. And if there is doubt, Cliff will ease it.

The DUML community will sleep well at night, knowing that at 3 a.m. when the pipes burst, a heater fails or a storm is brewing, Cliff will be there. It's a comfort to have Cliff in the DUML "gar­den:' because he knows his taters.

W ERE ARE YOU ?

HARVEY GOLD (Duke, A.M. 1958) was a student of Dr. Terry Johnson in marine mycology. After graduation he taught at Converse College for three years and then worked with Velsicol Chemical Corporation for 21 years per­forming research and lobbying in Washington, D.C. Five years ago he be­came the Executive Vice President of the National Pest Control Association. In this position he develops educational materials, organizes conferences and seminars, plans an annual convention and produces a monthly magazine.

LESLIE DAVIS (Summer '85 & Fall '86) is at the University of Southern California Law School where she is studying environmental law. This sum­mer she will be working for a firm in Seattle that is active in environmental projects.

DR. DAMIEN LIN (Spring '82) recently wrote Drs. Celia and Joe Bonaventura that she remembers Beaufort in the early eighties to be one of the most stimulating places she has lived, both academically and socially. Since she was at DUML, she has graduated from University of Pennsylvania Veteri­nary School. She has spent the last three summers in underwater treasure hunting, salvaging and photographing, including the enormous find and recovery of the ATOCHA. She has also been diving in Micronesia, Palau, Yap, Guam, Hon­duras Bay Islands, the Bahamas and lo­cally around Ft. Myers, Florida where she is a small animal veterinarian.

ALISON TAYLOR (Summer '82) completed law school at the University of Denver in May 1987. She has been practicing in the water and natural resources area with Davis, Graham and Stubbs, a firm in Denver, since then. She writes that she is planning to move to her firm's office in Washington, D.C. in the near future. She would like to gain ex­posure to coastal environmental issues which is impossible in Colorado.

WILLIAM KROEN ('89 Ph.D., Botany) is currently doing postdoctoral

By: Dr. C. G.Bookhout

research in Professor Mason Pharr's laboratory in the Horticulture Depart­ment of North Carolina State University. He (and his trombone) are sorely missed by the Carteret County Big Band.

DR. ROLLAND S FULTON, ill ('82 Ph.D., Zoology) is a staff member of the St. John's River Water Management Dis­trict in Palatka, FL. He has conducted research on the ecology of planktonic copepod communities. He is currently overseeing the development of research and monitoring programs targeted towards improving water and biotic quality in the St. Johns River.

DR. DIANE A. BAXTER ('83 Ph.D., Zoology) is currently Curator of Educa­tion, Scripps Aquarium Museum, Scripps Institution of Oceanography, University of California, San Diego, La­Jolla, CA. Dr. Baxter is currently plan­ning education programs for the Aquarium-Museum, scheduled to open early in 1991.

DR. GARTH N WARE ('84 Ph.D., Zoology) is currently a Senior Technical Writer with the Xerox Corporation, San Diego, CA.

DR. MICHAEL SALMON (Summer '61) has left the University of Illinois and is now Chairman of the Department of

I

Biological Sciences, Florida Atlantic University in Boca Raton. Dr. Salmon is best known for his research on fiddler crabs, which began as a project in Dr. Bookhout's Marine Invertebrate Zool-

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ogy course. He and his research as­sociate, Dr. Jeanette Wyneken, are now studying the migration and orientation of hatchling sea turtles.

DR. CYNTHIA ANN FAIRFAX (Duke '84; Summer '82) graduated from Oregon Health Sciences University in Portland, in June 1989. She is currently doing the first two years of her residency in general surgery in Salt Lake City, Utah. She is also enjoying skiing in the winter and the beauty of the deserts in the winter and summer. After two years in Salt Lake City, she will return to Oregon to complete her residency in urology.

DR. J. FREDERICK GRASSLE (Duke '67, Ph.D. Zoology; Summer '62, '63) a marine biologist and senior scientist at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution in Mas­sachusetts, was appointed Director of the new Institute of Marine and Coastal Sciences at Rutgers University/Cook College last August. Dr. Grassle will also serve as Chairman of a new Depart­ment of Marine and Coastal Sciences and as Associate Director for Marine Scien­ces at the Experiment Station.

DR. JUDITH PAYNE GRASSLE (Duke '68 Ph.D. Zoology; Summer, '60 '62, '63) a marine biologist at the Marine Biological Laboratory, Woods Hole, Mass., was appointed professor of Marine Science at the Institute and the Experiment Station last September.

A OUNCES NEW OWME TS

When Duke University threatened to curtail DUML's operation ten years ago, faculty, alumni, and friends of the Laboratory flooded Chancellor Pye 's of­fice with letters urging support for the facility. Chancellor Pye suggested that the some of the support for DUML could come from alumni and friends.

An Annual Drive was initiated in 1983-84 with 300 donors contributing $17,500. Each year thereafter, addition­al donors have contributed increased amounts each year. In 1988-89, $100,466 was donated by 642 con­tributors.

We have also encouraged our friends to establish endowments for particular needs of the Laboratory. The federal government has restricted scholarship support and tuition has increased each year, creating a great need for scholar­ship support.

It will be years before the income from endowments will render DUML self-sufficient. The success of the Laboratory depends upon a total endow­ment of 15 million dollars.

In the endowments the FUND in­come, but not the principal, is used to provide support of DUML programs. However, some of the income generated by the endowment is returned to the prin­cipal each year. It is encouraging that the total number of endowments has in­creased from one in 1977 to 21 in 1990. A description of two recent endowments follows.

MARY DERRICKSON MCCURDY SCHOLARSHIP ENDOWMENT FUND

Dr. Harold G. McCurdy (Duke '30, '38 Ph.D.) of Chapel Hill established an endowment fund in memory of his late wife, Mary Burton Derrickson McCurdy (Duke '38 Ph.D.). The initial gift was made in December 1989. The fund in­come will provide scholarship support to undergraduates at DUML. Preference

By: Dr. C.G. Bookhout 1989-90 DUML Annual Fund Chairman

shall be given to current recipients of named scholarships, biology majors, and Marine Science Education Consortium scholars.

MARY DERRICKSON MCCURDY VISITING SCHOLARS ENDOW­MENTFUND

Dr. Harold G. McCurdy also estab­lished this permanent fund in memory of his wife with an initial contribution in November 1989. The fund income is to be used to bring distinguished biological oceanographers to D UML for at least one semester to conduct research and to su­pervise student research projects.

Dr. McCurdy has not only established two endowments in memory of his wife, Mary Derrickson McCurdy, but has writ­ten a beautiful account of her life, en­titled, About Mary. He shares that she was born in Frederica, Delaware on June 20, 1908. As a child she became familiar with the fauna and flora of the tidal river which flowed past her town and into the Delaware Bay. Upon her graduation from Goucher College in 1930, she was given a scholarship at the Marine Biological Laboratory, Woods Hole, MA. Thereafter, she returned to Woods Hole summer after summer to engage in research of the cytology and physiology of marine animals.

In the fall of 1930, she went to Syracuse University as a graduate assis­tant in zoology, and in 1932 earned a M.A. degree under Dr. William Smallwood. In 1935 she entered the Duke Graduate School and in 1938 received her Ph.D. under Dr. George T. Hargitt. She married while in graduate school, but continued to do research after graduation. She was a devoted wife and mother.

In her later years she spent the months of June through October at Rehoboth Beach, Delaware where she became in­terested in the efforts of the Marine Laboratory of the University of Delaware and the state of Delaware in preserving the vital wetland. In 1985 she donated to the state a portion of her farm bordering on a branch of Murderkill River. As a biological researcher and lover of nature, Mary desired that the environment be reverenced. The pur­poses of these endowments will be faith­fully carried out, and will be a fitting memorial to Mary Burton Derrickson McCurdy.

As of March 31, 1990, $132,805 had been contributed towards this year's An­nual Fund goal of $150,000. If you have not already contributed this year, will you kindly consider sending your gift to Duke University, 2127 Campus Drive, Durham, NC 27706.

James H. P. Bailey Jr. '68 Margaret Bates (Ex Officio) David M. Barringer

ADVISORY BOARD F. Nelson Blount Crisp '60 John R. Eisenmann '63 Susan S. Goodmon

Anne F. McMahon '44 William C. Powell Robert W. Safrit Jr. '31 Richard C. Seale '65 W. Mason Shehan '37 Fred Stanback '50

C. Leland Bassett '59 Charles F. Blanchard '47 L'49 Charles Bugg '47, H'54 Robert W. Carr L. Hatsell Cash '45 Arthur W. Clark Jesse Colvin (Ex Officio)

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C. Howard Hardesty Jr. '43 Watts HillJr. A. Smith Holcomb '58 Susan Hudson Henry 0. Lineberger Jr. '50 Diane McCallister

DUML News Staff JosephS. Ramus, Director Photographs : Scott Taylor Artwork: Meg Forward Printed by: Coastal Press

Katherine Goodman Stern' 46 Norwood A. Thomas Jr. '55 Charles B. Wade Jr. '38

OM OATHOUSE

These are the observations of a non­candidate. I refer to the recently con­cluded search for the Director of the Marine Laboratory, to fill the position held by John Costlow for 21 years. The search was time and labor intensive. The rhetorical question: was it necessary, only to seat the Acting Director? The answer: yes, for reasons of calibration!

A slate of interviewing candidates functions as an ad hoc board of consult­ants, both to the academic unit and to the University administration. An inventory of the program must be presented to each one, as well as the agenda for· program development.

Equally important, the resources for program development must be manifest. This presumes that long- range planning has occurred, and that resources have been committed. The candidates response to the inventory, the program agenda and committed resources con­stitute a rock hard "reality check" for the program.

The search committee was of the University, and included as chairman Ronald Perkins (Chairman, Geology), Malcolm Gillis (Dean, Graduate School), Charles Putman (Vice Provost, Research & Development), Celia Bonaventura (Prof., Cell Biology) and myself. The position was advertised widely, including the journals Nature, Science and Eos. The search produced

By: Dr. JosephS. Ramus

about thirty qualified candidates, and the international ocean science academy was consulted for perspectives. Sub­sequently, six of the candidates were chosen to interview.

All of these individuals were interna­tionally recognized in their fields, which included statistical mathematics, physi­cal oceanography, benthic ecology, geochemistry, geophysics and marine geology. All had administrative ex­perience, and all were exciting in­dividuals in their own right. The candidates gave seminars at both the Durham and Beaufort campuses, and in­terviewed students, faculty and academic administrators.

One of these candidates, a renowned scholar, well known to the Marine Laboratory community, was offered the position of Director. There then followed a period of negotiation and visitation, when both the candidate and the Univer­sity focused expectations and require­ments.

When all was concluded, the can­didate very reluctantly withdrew from the competition, for reasons of the most personal nature. The mismatch w"s suf­ficient not to separate the candidate from his current position, the quality of which was improved by his home institution.

Several of the interviewed candidates have taken other positions, including

DUKE UNIVERSITY MARINE LABORATORY PNERS ISLAND BEAUFORT, NORTH CAROLINA 28516

ADDRESS CORRECTION REQUESTED

Dean of a School of Atmospheric and Ocean Sciences, Director of a Lakes Re­search Laboratory, Chairman of a Department of Marine, Earth and Atmos­pheric Sciences, and Chairman of a Physics Department.

The search process was sufficiently rigorous so as to calibrate both the pro­gram agenda and the sitting director. I would have been pleased to serve with several of the candidates, for they would have made fine directors.

On the other hand,. I am pleased to have been chosen to lead the Marine Laboratory for the next five years, now knowing explicitly that I can make a positive contribution to the development of the institution. I very much appreciate the confidence expressed by the staff, the Academy and the Advisory Board. I will serve to the best of my abilities.

Nonprofit organization

U.S. POSTAGE PAID

Beaufort, NC PennitNo. 25