Senator Sheldon Whitehouse was awarded the inaugural Admiral James D. Watkins Award by the Consortium for Ocean Leadership in a ceremony at the Bay Campus. The award was created in honor of the late Admiral to recognize outstanding contributions to ocean research and education.

Dr. Robert Gagosian, President of the Consortium for Ocean Leadership, presented the award, noting Senator Whitehouse’s history of being an ocean champion; helping to establish the Senate Oceans Caucus; leading the Senate effort to establish a National Endowment for the Oceans; and helping to pass the Estuary Restoration Act.

There were a series of afternoon events at the URI GSO to commemorate this special occasion:  a lecture by Dr. Gagosian titled “Oceanography Amidst a Fiscal Cliff”; a tour of the URI GSO Inner Space Center; and the Admiral James D. Watkins award presentation and reception.

The Watkins Award is conveyed by the Consortium for Ocean Leadership; a Washington-DC based nonprofit organization that represents more than 100 of the nation’s leading public and private ocean research and education institutions, aquaria and industry.  The Consortium for Ocean Leadership was established in 2007 through the merger of JOI and CORE, with the mission to shape the future of ocean science and technology through research, education and sound ocean policy.

For further details, please see Ocean Leadership’s press release.

Photo: From left to right, URI President Dr. David Dooley; Senator Sheldon Whitehouse; Dr. Robert Gagosian, President, Consortium for Ocean Leadership; Dr. Bruce Corliss, Dean of GSO. Photo courtesy of Kevin Wheeler, Ocean Leadership