The Center announced the selection of Dr. William A. Karp as the new Deputy Science and Research Director for Alaska effective 4 January 2008.
Bill has extensive experience in regional, national and international research and management programs as well as in fisheries technology, monitoring, and assessment. He has worked in three of the Divisions in the Center as a scientist, program manager, and division director over the last 20 years. He has served as the Director of the Fisheries Monitoring and Analysis (FMA) Division since 2003 and as the Program Manager for the North Pacific Groundfish Observer Program for a 6-year period, before FMA was established as a separate division. Bill has worked closely with the North Pacific Fishery Management Council and the NMFS Alaska Regional Office on fishery monitoring and catch estimation issues. He has served as the regional representative on the National Observer Program Advisory Team and chairs the steering committee for the NMFS National Bycatch Report Initiative.
Bill managed the Midwater Assessment and Conservation Engineering (MACE) Program between 1999 and 2003 and has more than 15 years of public- and private-sector experience in the field of fisheries acoustics. He was assigned to work with acoustics experts at the Institute of Marine Research in Bergen, Norway for a 1-year period in the early 1990s. Bill served as the first chair of the NMFS Advanced Survey Technology Working Group between 2000 and 2003. His publications cover topics associated with fishery-independent and fishery-dependent sampling, and fisheries policy.
Bill is active in the ICES (International Council for Exploration of the Sea) community and was elected chair of the ICES Fisheries Technology Committee for 2008-2010. He is the AFSC lead for the Center’s cooperative agreement with the Norwegian Institute of Marine Research. He also is a Senior Fellow of the Council for Excellence in Government.
Bill was awarded a B.Sc. in Applied Biology by Liverpool John Moores University (UK) in 1972 and M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in Fisheries by the University of Washington in 1975 and 1982.
Bill will be working with the current Deputy Jim Coe through the end of 2007 to assure a seamless transition. The Center congratulates Bill on his selection.
