Since its establishment in 1961, the IODE programme has evolved into a dynamic global network of data and information centres, driven by the dedication of hundreds of national and international experts. Many of these experts contribute their expertise voluntarily, going beyond their regular professional responsibilities to support the programme’s mission.
The IODE programme introduced the IODE Achievement Awards during its twentieth session in 2009 to recognize and honor outstanding contributions. These awards serve as a special token of appreciation for individuals who have dedicated significant time and effort to advancing the programme’s goals.
IODE Achievement Award recipient list (2009-2023)
A-K
Arias-Isaza, Francisco (Mr)
Balopoulos, Efstathios (Mr)
Belov, Sergey (Mr)
Boyer, Tim (Mr)
Bristol, Sky (Mr)
Brown, Murray (Mr)
Chandler, Cynthia (Ms)
Davies, Suzie (Ms)
de Bruin, Taco (Mr)
de Lichtervelde, Kristin (Ms)
Fornwall, Mark (Mr)
Goovaerts, Marc (mr)
Herman, Rudy (Mr)
Iona, Sissy (Ms)
Karstensen, Johannes (Mr)
Keeley, Robert (Mr)
Keita Ndiaye, Arame (Ms)
Klein, Eduardo (Mr)
L-P
Lin, Shaohua (Ms)
Levitus, Sydney (Mr)
Lowry, Roy (Mr)
Maillard, Catherine (Ms)
Michida, Yutaka (Mr)
Oliounine, Iouri (Mr)
Mees, Jan (Mr)
Mikhailov, Nick (Mr)
Narayanan, Savithri (Ms)
Neves Delgado, Claudia M. (Ms)
Pearlman, Jay S. (Mr)
Pepe, Richard (Mr)
Pissierssens, Peter (Mr)
Petit de la Villéon, Loic (Mr)
Pikula, Linda (Ms)
Q-Z
Reed, Greg (Mr)
Rickards, Lesley (Ms)
Ruivo, Mario (Mr)
Sierra-Correa, Paula (Ms)
Simpson, Pauline (Ms)
Sun, Charles (Mr)
Troisi, Ariel (Mr)
Van Crombrugge, Mark (Mr)
Vannier, Adrien (Mr)
Watson-Wright, Wendy (Ms)
Awards 2023
The 26th Session of the IODE Committee had a virtual award ceremony. Four awards were given. The live ceremony took place during the first international data conference in November 2021 in Poland.
Jay S.Pearlman and Johannes Karstensen
In recognition of their commitment and contribution to the IODE/GOOS Ocean Best Practices Project. Unfortunately Jay and Johannes could not be here, se we kindly ask René Garello to accept the awards on their behalf.
Claudia M. Neves Delgado
In recognition of her commitment and contribution to the IODE OceanTeacher Global Academy Project.
Kristin de Lichtervelde
In recognition of her outstanding commitment and contribution to IODE since 2005.
Sergey Belov and Taco de Bruin
In recognition of their leadership as IODE Co-Chairs 2019-2023.
Peter Pissierssens
In recognition of his leadership for all these years as the head of the IODE Project Office.
Awards 2021
The 26th Session of the IODE Committee had a virtual award ceremony. Four awards were given. The live ceremony took place during the first international data conference in November 2021 in Poland.
Mr Francisco Arias-Isaza
Francisco has strongly and actively supported the Caribbean Marine Atlas since its conception in 2007. Over the next 14 years, Francisco’s institution INVEMAR developed CMA into a widely appreciated regional atlas. In addition, Francisco recognized the potential of creating a regional data and information system that led to the Ocean InfoHub, for which his team developed a prototype that was presented to the IOC Executive Council. Last but not least, INVEMAR established one of the first OTGA regional training centres. Throughout these many years, Francisco’s leadership has contributed substantially to IODE’s regional activities in Latin America and served as an example for other regions.
Mr Sky Bristol
Sky served four years in his role as SG-OBIS co-chair and was instrumental in advising OBIS in the development of a new infrastructure and technology stack (OBIS2.0).
Mr Eduardo Klein
Eduardo served four years as SG-OBIS co-chair and, as a true bridge-maker, successfully helped expand the OBIS network with many new partners, OBIS nodes, and collaborators, including the Marine Biodiversity Observation Network and the Convention of Biological Diversity. He was also an active OBIS trainer.
Ms Paula Sierra-Correa
Paula and her team at INVEMAR have provided the technical expertise and know-how that was essential for the development of the Caribbean Marine Atlas. With her technical expertise and diplomatic skills Paula has been able to develop an outstanding and sustained Atlas product that has, as mentioned, served as a foundation for the Ocean InfoHub.
Awards 2019
The 25th Session of the IODE Committee issued six awards. The awards ceremony was held during the IODE-XXV official reception on 20 February 2019 in Tokyo, Japan. The Awards were handed out by Dr Vladimir Ryabinin, IOC Executive Secretary.
Mr Mark Van Crombrugge
When Mark joined the IOC Project Office for IODE about 13 years ago, he was the second employee in the office. His task was to build up our IT system from scratch. At the same time, we started organizing courses for students from around the globe. Mark quickly became the ideal host during working hours, evenings, and weekends. Mark would be available for the students if they needed a new battery, their laptop broke down, wanted to visit Bruges or World War II monuments or were looking for chocolate to take home. Mark was always ready to help. So very soon, all the students knew how to get to Mark’s office.
A company or organization is much more than a building and equipment. No company or organization can function without people who are committed to excellence and who can make other people feel welcome. Mark was such a colleague: thanks to his warmth and always being there to help so many students (and colleagues) enjoyed their time in Oostende, in addition to getting training (and this training was both scientific as well as Mark’s special course on Belgian beers during the ice-breaker drinks). This helped us build a global community of the OceanTeacher Global Academy.
With this IODE Achievement Award, we want to express the gratitude of our community to Mark. He will not be forgotten. Peter Pissierssens handed Mark’s award over to Mark’s wife at the IOC Project Office for IODE in Oostende, Belgium, prior to IODE-XXV.
Dr Charles Sun
We want to give Charles Sun this award for contributing to the GTSPP project. Some of you may remember that the GTSPP project was initiated jointly by IODE and IGOSS in 1990 as a pilot project and as a permanent operational programme in 1996. Initially, Bob Keeley was the Chair of the steering group, but when he retired, Charles took over. Charles was an active Chair and worked hard to continue the development of GTSPP as a service that provides essential subsurface climate variables of temperature and salinity profile data.
Charles has retired and cannot be with us this week, so we are asking Peter Chu, the new Chair of the GTSPP Steering Group, to accept the Award on Charles’ behalf.
Mr Tim Boyer
The next award goes to Tim Boyer. He had the hard task of taking over from Sydney Levitus, the father of the World Ocean Database and GODAR. WOD started in 1998 and has accumulated millions of ocean observations. But Tim was able to fill Syd’s big shoes: the World Ocean Database remains the world’s most extensive collection of vertical profile data of ocean characteristics available internationally without restriction. As a data manager, I do not have to explain that maintaining a database and explaining why this is necessary is difficult. Today, we all need to justify why we are asking for funding, and what we do needs to be society-relevant. Despite these challenges, Tim has continued WOD, and the database is expected to have 17 million records by the end of this year.
Ir. Loic Petit de la Villéon
The next award goes to Loïc Petit de la Villéon for his work on GOSUD. The objective of the Global Ocean Surface Underway Data Pilot Project is to collect, process, archive and disseminate in real time and delayed mode, sea surface salinity and other variables collected underway, by research and opportunity ships. The project was established in 2010 and was the brainchild of Catherine Maillard. After Catherine retired Loïc took over and has continued the good work. GOSUD now has a fully functional web site and data portal. So, for his long-time contribution to GOSUD and IODE we want to give Loïc the IODE Achievement award.
Ms Cynthia Chandler and Prof Yutaka Michida
Last but not least we want to thank our two outgoing Co-Chairs Cyndy and Yutaka. Often people think that being Chair is easy: you just have to manage a meeting of the IODE committee and make a presentation during the IOC Assembly in Paris (and who does not want to go to Paris for a week?). But Cyndy and Yutaka know that being Co-Chair of IODE involves much more and can easily become a full-time job. IODE has managed to be recognized (e.g. in the UN decade) as a key partner in the ocean research, observation, service and product development. In fact, providing data and information management is included in one of the 2 goals of the decade. So IODE has been transforming itself from a network of ocean data and information centres that serve mainly “curiosity”science to a network of data products and service providers as well. At the level of IOC this meant interacting more closely with other IOC programmes, advising on data management in e.g. the IIOE2. For our 2 Co-Chairs this meant participating in many international meetings to provide information on what IODE does today and what IODE can do for activities of tomorrow. I believe it is fair to say that our 2 Co-Chairs have been excellent Captains to bring our IODE ship into a new course that will enable the entire IODE community to be key partners in the Decade and other important initiatives at the national, regional and global scale. It is for this reason that we are giving Cyndy and Yutaka an IODE Achievement Award. (L to R: Yutaka Michida, Vladimir Ryabinin, Cynthia Chandler, Peter Pissierssens)
Awards 2017
The 24th Session of the IODE Committee issued 2 awards. The awards ceremony was held during the IODE-XXIV Scientific Workshop, 27 March 2017 in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.
Ms Arame Ndiaye Keita
In recognition of her strong commitment to marine libraries in Africa, Arame Keita has been involved in ODINAFRICA since the early days, which means almost 20 years. Throughout these years, she has become Africa’s lead expert in IODE’s marine information management. Despite often challenging conditions, Arame was always there to assist colleagues in Africa and beyond. With this award, we want to thank Arame for her commitment to IODE in general and to marine information management in particular.
Ms Suzie Davies
To Suzanne Davies – semi-retired Marine Librarian and Information Specialist at the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority Library, Australia. Member of the Group of Experts on Marine Information Management and Chairperson, 2004-2010. This award is given in recognition of her entire service to IODE , her work in developing the MIM Communication and Strategy Policy and her work in fostering the ODIN PIMRIS group and obtaining funding for mentoring and twinning through Pacific Marine & Environmental Libraries pilot twinning program – which she continues to do. This award is given in recognition of her service and her caring – to Suzie. Watch the video here.
Prof. Mario Ruivo
In recognition of his vision of a data and information network in Africa and his decades of support to IOC and its IODE.
Prof Ruivo had the vision, way back in 1988, that there should be an ocean data and information network in Africa. He sponsored, as IOC Executive Secretary, a mission to 8 East African countries to investigate the feasibility of an electronic network between countries in that region that would enable searching publications in a bibliographic data base and to send messages. That mission led to Flanders supporting the first ODINAFRICA pilot project which was called RECOSCIX-WIO. Without that first sponsoring we doubt ODINAFRICA would ever have seen the light of day. But even after Prof Ruivo left IOC (retirement), (1990), he continued to be a strong supporter of IODE but even more of capacity development. Portugal, through his strong support, hosted the 16th Session of IODE (2000) where Prof Ruivo again showed his strong support for IODE. For all the mentioned reasons we are awarding Prof Ruivo an IODE achievement award.
Awards 2017
The 23rd Session of the IODE Committee issued seven awards. The awards ceremony was held on 16 March 2015 in Brugge, Belgium, during the celebration day for the 10th anniversary of the IOC Project Office for IODE.
Ms Sissy Iona and Mr Ariel Troisi
The first and second awards go to Ariel Hernan Troisi and Sissy Iona, who have guided IODE through choppy waters during the past 4 years after being elected in 2011. The past 4 years were challenging: on the positive side, we welcomed the OBIS and ICAN communities into IODE, but on the negative side, we saw the United States leaving UNESCO, resulting in an almost 80% drop in IOC’s operating budget. But Ariel and Sissy held their hands firmly on the steering wheel. The 22nd Session of the IODE Committee issued four awards. The awards ceremony was held during the official dinner on Thursday, 14 March.
Dr Wendy Watson-Wright
Another colleague who had to deal with the choppy seas and empty coffers was Wendy. When she joined IOC as Executive Secretary in 2010, she probably did not expect the bottom to fall out of her budget only a year later in 2011! It takes a good leader not to scream and run away when something like this happens. But Wendy took this disaster in her stride and worked hard to keep all of us, her staff, working together rather than just saving our little empires. However, we are giving Wendy this award mainly because of what she did for IODE. When OBIS joined IOC and its IODE, one of the commitments was to provide a sustained stable environment for OBIS, including secretariat staff. Despite the financial disaster, Wendy baffled us all by creating a new professional position for OBIS. This was not only exceptional because of the economic situation but also because it was the first IODE position to be made in 20 years, the previous being mine. And, of course, let me also note that Wendy’s mother is a member of the Imperial Order Daughters of the Empire, of which the acronym is also IODE. So it is a great pleasure and honour for me to give this award to Wendy.
Mr Mark Fornwall
Unfortunately, Mark could not be with us today, so I am asking Pat Halpin to accept the award on his behalf. Mark became the Chair of the OBIS Ad Hoc meeting in November 2010 and was re-elected as Chair at the first session of the OBIS Steering Group in December 2011. Mark has shown great leadership skills during the OBIS transition from the Census of Marine Life into an intergovernmental project under IODE. This was far from easy. With a budget of half a million US$ per year for the OBIS secretariat to a few ten thousand, barely enough to pay for the OBIS Steering Group meeting, was not what you call an easy transition. However, he has managed to keep the community together and has shown a lot of confidence, respect, and patience with IOC, IODE, and all the members of the OBIS nodes. OBIS is now doing very well and is one of the flagship projects of IODE and IOC. Now that Mark has retired from the US Geological Survey, where he was the manager of the OBIS USA node, he also retired as chair of the OBIS Steering Group and in recognition of his commitment to OBIS, he deserves this IODE award.
Mr Marc Goovaerts
Mr Marc Goovaerts has been involved with IODE’s marine information management activities for over 10 years. He has been a key lecturer at OceanTeacher and has helped build marine library capacity in Africa, Eastern Europe, Latin America, and the Caribbean. While working with IODE GEMIM, Marc has provided up-to-date marine information technology services through the OceanDocs e-repository. At the University of Hasselt, he has created a one-stop online access point to free or low-cost scientific literature through the OpenScienceDirectory, which delivers over 13,000 scientific journals to developing nations. For many years, we have appreciated Marc as someone with innovative vision and passion. It is, therefore, with great pleasure that we hand over this award to Marc.
Dr Savithri Narayanan
Savi, as we all know her, has been part of the Canadian Delegation for many years. She was also an IODE national coordinator and stood at the cradle of JCOMM in the late 1999s. Savi was elected as the first JCOMM Co-President in 2001 (with Johannes Guddal as the other Co-President) when JCOMM met for the first time. The meeting took place in Akureyri, Iceland, during the period midnight sun, and I still remember that we were meeting in a hotel room at night, the sun shining at 2 am, with Savi and Neville Smith, thinking of distributed data systems and what would later become Ocean Data Portal. Savi has always been a strong supporter of IODE within JCOMM. In meetings, Savi never took the role of flowerpot: when you invited Savi, you knew there would be a lot of discussion! Savi has retired, but we hope to continue benefiting from her experience and wisdom. So it is with great pleasure that I hand over this award to Savi.
Dr Jan Mees
The last award for 2015 goes to a man who stood at the cradle of the Project Office and actually built the cradle. It was in fact at the opening of the new Flanders Marine Institute facilities in Oostende in 2000 that the idea popped up to open an office in Oostende. How could the IOC not have an office with a view on the sea? So Jan and Rudy Herman, also here, decided to discuss the idea with the Flemish Government and, as well all know, they were successful. Jan and his team have been assisting us from the start with all sorts of support. So we want to thank Jan and his team for 10 years of assisting us in reaching the service level we wanted to reach.
Awards 2013
Ms Suzie Davies
To Suzanne Davies – semi-retired Marine Librarian and Information Specialist at the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority Library, Australia. Member of the Group of Experts on Marine Information Management and Chairperson, 2004-2010. This award is given in recognition of her entire service to IODE , her work in developing the MIM Communication and Strategy Policy and her work in fostering the ODIN PIMRIS group and obtaining funding for mentoring and twinning through Pacific Marine & Environmental Libraries pilot twinning program – which she continues to do. This award is given in recognition of her service and her caring – to Suzie. Watch the video here.
Dr Rudy Herman
It is a great honour and pleasure to hand over this award to Dr Rudy Herman, albeit virtually. One may wonder why we are issuing an award for someone not an expert in our IODE network. The answer is simple: without the commitment and loyalty of Dr Herman to IODE, there would have been no ODINAFRICA, IODE Project Office or OceanTeacher, and the staff working for IODE would be just one or none. We award Dr Herman for his long-term vision as a donor and marine scientist. Nearly 15 years ago, the Government of Flanders was considering supporting a UN agency that was active in areas of Science in which Flanders was also interested. At that time, Dr Herman discovered that the work started by IOC and African Member states was within the framework of RECOSCIX and ODINEA. Despite the limited resources, he was impressed with the achievements of these activities, and this was the start of the Flanders-UNESCO Trust Fund for Science. This Fund was established in 1998 and provides €1 million/year to support activities of the International Hydrological Programme, Man and Biosphere, and IOC. IODE was lucky to be one of the first to submit proposals, enabling us to start ODINAFRICA. The major difference between the donor policy of Flanders and some other donors has been flexibility: development cooperation cannot always follow a work plan strictly, especially over an extended period. Local situation change and needs change. Flanders has always allowed us the flexibility to focus on emerging needs while adhering to common objectives. This has also led to spin-offs like the African Marine Atlas. Rudy also played a key role in establishing the IODE Project Office. Without his commitment, we would not have had the project office nor the substantial financial support that has enabled IODE to develop spectacularly since 2005. It has made Oostende the global meeting and training centre it is today. As you know, the MoU between Flanders and IOC has just been signed for another 5 years. Especially in the current financial crisis at UNESCO, the support provided by Flanders makes the difference between survival and shutdown. It is, therefore, with great pleasure that I am handing over, on behalf of the IODE community, this IODE Achievement Award to Dr Rudy Herman. Watch the video here.
Mr Roy Lowry
Roy has made numerous contributions to IODE over the past 3 decades – beginning with the software to accompany GF3 in the 1980s – an early attempt at interoperability! IODE developed the General Format 3 (GF3) system as a generalised formatting system for exchanging and archival data within the international oceanographic community. The comprehensive software package, GF3-Proc, was written by Roy, who also provided technical support. This was a major undertaking from a different era! The next stage of Roy’s career was compiling integrated data sets from major multidisciplinary oceanographic field programmes for UK, European and international projects, including leading the Joint Global Ocean Flux Study (JGOFS) Data Management Task Team. This also included much work on controlled vocabulary, which has evolved into one of his main areas of interest and impact. In particular, over the last 10 years or so, he has focused on the development of semantic infrastructure both in terms of technical and content governance. Roy was part of the joint IODE-ICES Study Group on MarineXML and subsequently instigated and led the IODE Steering Group on MarineXML. He set up the SeaVoX e-mail discussion forum for vocabulary content governance – and perhaps at this point, we should note that whilst IODE (and other) representation on SeaVoX is extensive, further participation would be most welcome (ask him). Although much progress has been made, there is still a lot to do, so Roy is responsible for the semantic framework underpinning the EU SeaDataNet project (which includes IODE) and has also led the ontologies work package in another EU project. One final area of Roy’s influence that should be mentioned is his contribution to the emerging subject of data publication and citation through his contribution to the workshops and case studies of the joint project established between SCOR, MBLWHOI, and IODE to investigate this topic. One last comment: Roy is a person who likes to get things done – and done correctly! He is always happy to discuss areas of interest, whether in a workshop like this or over some beers! So, with this, I want to express IODE’s appreciation for Roy’s tremendous achievements. Even though Roy has now decided to take retirement, we hope it will be a retirement only from his BODC day job and that he will continue sharing his expertise with the IODE community because it is so valuable and important to us. Watch the video here.
Prof. Shaohua Lin
Since its establishment in 1961, the IODE programme has developed and grown into an active global network of data centres and information centres thanks to the hard work of hundreds of national and international experts.
Most IODE experts contribute their work to the programme voluntarily in addition to doing their regular day job.
To express special appreciation to some of these experts who contributed time and effort, the IODE programme started bestowing the “IODE Achievement Awards” during the twentieth Session of the IODE Committee in 2009.
On this occasion, we would like to acknowledge the long-standing commitment and hard work of Prof Shao Lin from China. Prof Lin has always supported IODE and is one of our main champions at the IOC Assembly and EC, as well as in GOOS and JCOMM meetings. She has been the IODE national coordinator for China since 2003 and the regional coordinator for ODIN WESTPAC since 2007, devoting enormous efforts to promote the discovery, exchange of, access to and preservation of ocean data in her country and the region. We cannot forget that Prof. Lin was also the main driver for our committee to hold its XXth session in Beijing in 2009. We would like, accordingly, to ask Prof Lin to accept this heartfelt token of our appreciation and acknowledgement of her dedicated work and congratulate her for earning the award. Watch the video here.
Awards 2011
2011 was, of course, a special occasion as we celebrated IODE’s 50th anniversary. Candidates for an award were selected by the IODE Community (IODE national coordinators for data management and marine information management) through a web survey. The awards ceremony was held on Monday, 21 March 2011, at the Saint–Paul Cathedral Cloister in Liège, Belgium. On this occasion, eight awards were issued. Dr Wendy Watson-Wright, IOC Executive Secretary, handed over the awards. All photos by Aleksandr FEDORTCOV.
Mr Sydney Levitus (USA)
Sydney Levitus is undoubtedly one of our most revered colleagues. Syd started working at NOAA in 1989. With the end of the Cold War and the fragmentation of the Soviet Union approaching, Syd realized that the results of thousands of research cruises undertaken by the huge Soviet research fleet were at risk of being lost forever. This led to the establishment of the IODE Global Oceanographic Data Archaeology and Rescue Project (GODAR) project in 1992. This later led to the development of the World Ocean Atlas and World Ocean Database. Syd’s work was visionary as his efforts to collate data sets from around the world and from a considerable historical range turned out to be crucial for one of humankind’s greatest challenges today: climate change. Syd’s work is being recognized not only by our IODE but also by others. Recently, Syd was elected as a 2010 Fellow by the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS).
Dr Iouri Oliounine
Iouri has laid the solid foundations of IODE, which we build on using 21st-century technology. As a member of the Secretariat, Iouri was a people person. He realized that the strength of an international programme is based, first of all, on bringing people together across political borders. But he also went beyond purely professional relationships. Iouri forged strong friendships with many in the IODE community. He made IODE a family. But Iouri also took care of the future. Rather than simply disappearing upon retirement, Iouri trained his successor, Peter. Iouri’s commitment to IODE and to IOC was and is strong. This is also why we called him back two years ago to assist with the celebrations of the IOC’s 50th anniversary in 2010. I am therefore most honoured to award the second IODE Achievement Award to our colleague and friend,d Iouri Oliounine
Mr Robert Keeley
International operational data management can trace its beginnings to Bob Keeley. He recently retired from the Canadian Marine Environmental Data Service (MEDS) and leaves some big shoes to fill. Bob was one of the founding leaders of the Global Temperature Salinity Profile Program (GTSPP) and helped guide it to be one of IODE’s most respected international programs. Working tirelessly on the important but tedious documentation process, Bob helped guarantee that future generations of oceanographers would have the necessary information to evaluate past, present and future programs. This included defining standards that could be used throughout the oceanographic community, and he chaired the first Data Standards workshop, which defined the foundation for today’s International Data Standards process. Bob helped bridge the gap between the IODE and JCOMM community by serving as the Chair of Data Management.
Ms Pauline Simpson
Marine Information Management was added to the remit of IODE in the 1980s. This was also when IODE started collaborating with other UN agencies to develop the Aquatic Sciences and Fisheries Abstracts ASFA. Who has not used ASFA for their research? This was still the time of what we can call a “traditional” librarian dealing with paper journals and books. But in the late 1980s, we witnessed the emerging digital revolution. This did not only affect the data managers but also the marine librarians. Within IODE, marine information management was dealt with by the Group of Experts on MIM. It was under the Chairmanship of Pauline Simpson between 1992 and 1999 that most of the MIM products we all know and use today were developed, such as OceanExpert, OceanPortal and OceanDocs. Pauline, through her expertise and commitment, has created the MIM identity of IODE.
Mr Greg Reed
Being an IODE Chair is not an easy task. Many may think it merely involves Chairing the IODE Committee meeting once or twice. They are very much mistaken. As an IODE Chair, you represent the IODE community and the IODE family. As an IODE Chair, you have to master many technical issues and have many talents. Since its creation in 1961, IODE has had many excellent Chairs. However, the club of those who have contributed to IODE with the enthusiasm and commitment that Greg Reed has given is quite small. Greg’s contribution to IODE is not only as Chair. Greg has also taken it upon himself to pass his expertise to the next generation. Indeed, we must remind ourselves that universities still have no “ocean data management” curricula. Greg was one of the founding fathers of OceanTeacher now over ten years ago. From the start, Greg has been an enthusiastic lecturer, sharing his knowledge and experience with hundreds of students.
Mr Nick Mikhaylov
Nick Mikhailov has been one of a few creators of JCOMM and more particularly of the Data Management programme area of JCOMM. Nick has laid the basis for the IOC Strategic Plan for Oceanographic Data and Information Management and the IODE Ocean Data Portal with his end-to-end data management concept. Nick is our main engineer for future data systems. But Nick is also our leading proponent for interoperability creating an essential bridge between oceanography and marine meteorology.
Ms Linda Pikula
Linda knew that this area of knowledge management would offer exciting opportunities. Indeed, Linda has continued Pauline’s work, not only as a GEMIM Chair but also as IODE’s ambassador for marine information management, inspiring many starting marine information management students. Linda has made a lasting impression on the hundreds of students who attended the courses she taught, and they are all strong promotors of IODE’s ambition to build a global free and open digital library of ocean knowledge.
Awards 2010
Mr Richard Pepe (USA): ASFA Editor-in-Chief.
Richard was given the Award in recognition of his 28 years of outstanding service to the Aquatic Sciences and Fisheries Abstracts (ASFA), the bibliographic reference tool of choice for the ocean research (and freshwater) community. The photo shows Ms Linda Pikula (Chair GE-MIM) handing over the award to Richard during the 2010 ASFA Advisory Board meeting held in Casablanca, Morocco (5-9 July 2010).
Awards 2009
Lesley Rickards (UK): IODE Chair 2003-2007:
Dr Rickards was given the Award in recognition for her critical contribution in developing the IOC Strategic Plan for Oceanographic Data and Information Management, her visionary and leading role as IODE Chair during two inter-sessional periods and her contribution to the review of the ODINAFRICA project.
Efstathios Balopoulos (Greece): IODE Vice-Chair and Chair 1996-2003.
Dr Balopoulos has been bestowed an award for his work as IODE Chair and Co-Chair but also for his considerable contribution to IODE by seeking funds for IODE-related conferences and other IODE activities for many years.
Catherine Maillard (France):
Ms Maillard was issued a special lifetime achievement award for her outstanding contribution to the IODE programme through her work as IODE national coordinator as well as through developing international programmes such as MEDAR/MEDATLAS and SeaDataNet.
Adrien Vannier (France):
Mr Vannier has been given the award in recognition of his nearly 30 years of outstanding service to IODE as an administrative assistant at the IOC Secretariat in Paris. Thanks to his lifetime experience at IOC and having served several IODE Technical Secretaries and IOC Executive Secretaries, Mr Vannier has been able to ensure successful IODE Sessions and effective communication with Member States.
