The U.S. GLOBEC Coordinating Office has moved from the University of California at Berkeley to the University of Maryland, Chesapeake Biological Laboratory in Solomons, MD. The coordinating office had been located within the University of California system since 1992, under the capable leadership of Zack Powell.

During his tenure as chair, Powell took U.S. GLOBEC from the drawing board to a full field program in the Northwest Atlantic/Georges Bank region. He laid the groundwork for field programs in the Northeast Pacific and in the Southern Ocean with the able assistance of Hal Batchelder as Scientific Administrator and Kay Goldberg as Office Manager. Powell now serves as interim chair of the Northeast Pacific Program Steering Committee with Batchelder in the role of Scientific Administrator for the NEP Program.

Michael Fogarty of the University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science took the chair of the Scientific Steering Committee in 1998, following Powell's two terms in office. Funding for the operation of the coordination office at the University of Maryland became available in September of last year and Linda Lagle has been hired as Office Manager. Selection of the Scientific Administrator will be announced shortly. The program office serves the Scientific Steering Committee in carrying out its functions and responsibilities of program coordination and integration.