Posted on November 27, 2018 on URI Today.

NARRAGANSETT, R.I., Nov. 27, 2018 — The American Association for the Advancement of Science has elected a professor emeritus of the University of Rhode Island’s Graduate School of Oceanography and an alumnus of the school as 2018 Fellows.

James Yoder, professor emeritus of oceanography and a dean emeritus with the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, was selected for his pioneering contributions to advancing modeling and remote sensing of marine ecosystems, and for outstanding leadership in ocean sciences. Yoder received his master’s and doctoral degrees from GSO, became a member of the faculty and later served as associate dean and interim dean.

The Association also will honor Richard Kerr, a well-respected senior writer for Science magazine who received his Ph.D. from GSO. He is being recognized for distinguished contributions to scientific communications, providing insightful and elegant reporting of advances in the geosciences to scientists and the general public.

“Doctors Yoder and Kerr have made significant contributions to the oceanographic community and their election as AAAS Fellow is well deserved,” said Bruce Corliss, dean of GSO. “Jim has had a distinguished career as a biological oceanographer and is widely recognized for his seminal contributions to oceanographic remote sensing as well as being one of the most respected leaders in oceanography.

“Over his long career at Science magazine, Dick became one of the most respected writers in oceanography and earth sciences and is known for his ability to report complex stories to a broad scientific readership in a graceful manner,” Corliss said.

This year 416 members have been selected as Fellows for their scientifically or socially distinguished efforts to advance science or its applications. The 2018 Association Fellows will be formally announced in the Association News & Notes section of the journal Science Nov. 29 and will receive a certificate and a gold and blue rosette pin during the Association’s 2019 Annual Meeting in Washington, D.C., in February.

Yoder currently chairs the National Academy of Sciences (NAS) committee Catalyzing Opportunities for Research in the Earth Sciences, recently served as co-chair of the Ecosystem Panel for the NAS Decadal Survey for Earth Science and Applications from Space and was a member of the NAS committee Decadal Survey of Ocean Sciences. He is a former chair of the international group that seeks international cooperation for satellite measurements of ocean color radiometry and its application for understanding regional to global ocean patterns in the productivity of the seas. In 2011, he was named a fellow of The Oceanography Society “for his innovative and visionary application of satellite ocean color technologies to interdisciplinary oceanography and his extraordinary service to oceanography.”

“I deeply appreciate the support l received from the institution and my lab group at GSO-URI and the institution and my staff at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution without which nothing of which I accomplished would have been possible,” Yoder said.

The tradition of Association Fellows began in 1874, and the lifetime honor comes with an expectation that recipients maintain the highest standards of professional ethics and scientific integrity. The Association is the world’s largest general scientific society and publisher of the journal Science as well as Science Translational Medicine, Science Signaling, a digital, open-access journal, Science Advances, Science Immunology, and Science Robotics. The Association was founded in 1848 and includes nearly 250 affiliated societies and academies of science, serving 10 million individuals.