Office of the Dean

Office of the Dean

Contact

SFOS Dean's Office
245 O'Neill
PO Box 757220
University of Alaska Fairbanks
Fairbanks, AK 99775-7220
Phone: (907) 474-7210
Fax: (907) 474-7204
wiesenburg@sfos.uaf.edu

Biography

Dr. Wiesenburg is Dean of the School of Fisheries and Ocean Sciences (SFOS) and Professor of Marine Science at the University of Alaska Fairbanks (UAF). He is a native of Pascagoula, Mississippi and a graduate of Duke University (B.A. in Chemistry 1970). Wiesenburg earned a M.S. in chemical oceanography from Old Dominion University and a Ph.D. in oceanography from Texas A&M University.

Dr. Wiesenburg has broad experience in oceanographic research, academic program development, and marine policy. During his career, he has worked for the U.S. government and in academia both as a research scientist and as a tenured faculty member.

As a civilian oceanographer for the Naval Ocean Research and Development Activity (NORDA – now Naval Research Laboratory – SSC) Wiesenburg organized a multidisciplinary team to study small scale variability across the Gulf Stream and other ocean frontal boundaries. This Navy-funded research program in the Mediterranean Sea led to the discovery of a new ocean current along the North African coast which he and his colleagues named the Algerian Current.

Wiesenburg was an Associate Research Scientist and Associate Director of the Geochemical and Environmental Research Group (GERG) at Texas A&M University during the growth of that organization from 50 to over 100 employees. Working with this group at Texas A&M gave him and his graduate students an opportunity to study the oil spills off the Olympic Peninsula of Washington, to examine seamounts in the Pacific Ocean, to dive to the bottom of the Gulf of Mexico in the submersible DSRV Alvin, to spend five days underwater in nuclear-powered research submarine NR-1, and to study chemosynthetic organisms living on seeping oil and gas 800 meters deep on the continental shelf. He spent four years managing part of the largest oceanography program ever conducted in the Gulf of Mexico – the Louisiana Texas Shelf Circulation and Transport Processes Study (LATEX).

At the University of Southern Mississippi (USM) Wiesenburg served for ten years as the Chair of the Department of Marine Science and was responsible for recruiting and mentoring faculty, managing academic resources, budget planning, facility management, interacting with various state and congressional delegations, and working with heads of the federal agencies at the Stennis Space Center. He became the second Dean of the UAF School of Fisheries and Ocean Sciences on July 1, 2004. He is an elected member of the University-National Ocean Laboratory System (UNOLS) Council and a member of the North Pacific Research Board.

Dr. Wiesenburg has spent over 300 days at sea conducting research and has published more than 30 scientific articles. In 2000 Wiesenburg was awarded the Navy Superior Public Service Award for his efforts in establishing the nation’s only Master of Science degree in Hydrographic Science. Dr. Wiesenburg lives in Fairbanks, Alaska with his wife Jean and daughter Vanessa.