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KAUST Inauguration Symposium Speaker

Tony Haymet

University of California at San Diego

A. D. J. "Tony" Haymet is the Vice Chancellor for Marine Sciences, Director of the renowned Scripps Institution of Oceanography, and Dean of the Graduate School of Marine Sciences at the University of California at San Diego, which he joined in 2006.

Professor Haymet is a distinguished researcher, author, and opinion-shaper who came to the United States from after serving as the Science and Policy Director and former Chief of Marine and Atmospheric Science at the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization (CSIRO), Australia's national science agency and one of the largest and most diverse research agencies in the world. He is committed to creating a scientific basis for “policy makers and citizens to know the magnitude of the problems we face, and some options for conquering them."

Professor Haymet holds a PhD from the University of Chicago and a Doctor of Science from the University of Sydney. Between 1981 and 1991, he did postdoctoral work at Harvard University and taught at the University of California at Berkeley and the University of Utah. In 1998, he was named a Distinguished University Professor of Chemistry at the University of Houston. Professor Haymet has published more than 160 peer-reviewed scientific articles. In 2003, he was appointed Chief of CSIRO Marine Research, and in July 2005, became Chief of the newly merged CSIRO Marine and Atmospheric Research, with a research portfolio spanning climate change, oceanography, fisheries, marine ecosystem sustainability, aquaculture and urban air quality. He also founded the "Wealth from Oceans" Flagship, one of six outcome-driven and industrially focused research portfolios set by Australia's national priorities. While teaching at the University of Sydney in the mid-1990s, he did field work in Antarctica.

Professor Haymet's professional associations include the chairmanship of the Partnership for Observation of the Global Oceans (POGO), membership on the Board of Directors of the Cooperative Research Centre (CRC) for Antarctic Climate and Ecosystems (ACE), founding partner of the newly formed Western Australian Marine Science Institution (WAMSI), chair of the Australian Federal Government's Oceans Policy Science Advisory Group and member of the National Ocean Advisory Group and the Marine and Coastal Committee.