Robert A. Duce was born in Midland, Ontario, Canada in 1935 and moved to the United States at an early age. After growing up in Connecticut, Missouri, and Texas, he graduated with a B.A. in chemistry from Baylor University in 1957. After 4 years service as a meteorologist in the US Air Force, he completed a PhD in inorganic and nuclear chemistry at MIT in 1964. He was a member of the faculty of the Dept. of Chemistry at the University of Hawaii from 1965 to 1970, and he also served as Associate Professor and Professor of Oceanography from 1970 to 1991 at the Graduate School of Oceanography, University of Rhode Island (URI). He was founder and Director of the Center for Atmospheric Chemistry Studies at URI, and from 1987 to 1991 he was Dean of the Graduate School of Oceanography and Vice Provost for Marine Affairs at URI. From 1991 to 1997 he was Dean of the College of Geosciences at Texas A&M University, where he is presently Distinguished Professor Emeritus of Oceanography and Distinguished Professor Emeritus of Atmospheric Sciences. He has held visiting professorships at the University of East Anglia in Great Britain, at the University of Texas, at Keio University in Japan, and at the University of Otago in New Zealand. He was a visiting scientist at the Centre de Faibles Radioactivites in France and at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Aeronomy Laboratory in Boulder, CO.

Dr. Duce is a current member and Past Chair of the United Nations Group of Experts on the Scientific Aspects of Marine Environmental Protection (GESAMP) and is co-chair of the GESAMP/ WMO Working Group on Atmospheric Input of Chemicals to the Ocean. He is a member of NOAA's National Sea Grant Advisory Board, the Scientific Committee (and Treasurer) of the International Geosphere/Biosphere Program (IGBP), the Scientific Steering Committee of US GEOTRACES, the Program Advisory Council of the NSF Ocean Observatories Initiative, and is co-chair of the US National Research Council (NRC) Committee on Scientific Ocean Drilling. He served as President and Past President of the ICSU Scientific Committee on Oceanic Research (SCOR) and also as President of the International Association of Meteorology and Atmospheric Sciences (IAMAS) and as President of The Oceanography Society. He is a past member of the Oceans Task Team on the NRC Committee on Climate, Energy and National Security. He has been a member of the NRC¢s Ocean Studies Board and Board on Atmospheric Sciences and Climate. He also was chair of the NRC Panel on Global Tropospheric Chemistry, chair of the NRC Committee on Haze in National Parks and Wilderness Areas, and co-chair of the NRC Review of the Federal Ocean Research Priorities Plan and Implementation Strategy. He was recently Chairman of the AGU Fall Meeting Program Committee. He has served as co-chair of the Planning Committee for the IGBP Surface Ocean-Lower Atmosphere Study (SOLAS) and was Chair of the Canadian SOLAS Board of Directors. He served as a member of the Board of Governors of the Joint Oceanographic Institutions, Inc., the Board of Governors of the Consortium for Oceanographic Research and Education (CORE), the Executive Committee of the International Ocean Drilling Program, and the Board of Trustees of the University Corporation for Atmospheric Research. He is the former Chairman of the Board of the Texas Institute of Oceanography. He served for many years as member, Secretary, and President of the International Commission on Atmospheric Chemistry and Global Pollution and is now a life honorary member. He has served on the editorial boards of several scientific journals. He has served on the NSF Advisory Committee on Ocean Sciences, Atmospheric Sciences, and Geosciences, as well as the Steering Committee of the IGBP International Global Atmospheric Chemistry Program. He has been a member of or chaired numerous advisory committees of the NRC, NSF, ONR, EPA, NASA, NOAA, the United Nations, and the World Meteorological Organization.

Dr. Duce's principal research interests are in the chemistry of the atmosphere and ocean, focusing on the chemical cycles of pollutant and natural substances in the global atmosphere, their transport from the continents and their deposition to coastal and remote ocean regions. In recent years he has focused on the atmospheric transport of nutrients (including iron, nitrogen, and phosphorus) into the global ocean and their impact on marine biogeochemistry and climate. He has undertaken studies in Antarctica, the arctic, and in all the world's oceans. He has had extensive research support from the National Science Foundation (NSF), the Office of Naval Research (ONR), the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), NOAA, and other federal agencies. He has over 280 scientific publications in journals, books, and proceedings. In 1990 he was awarded the Rosenstiel Award in Marine and Atmospheric Chemistry. He is a fellow of the American Geophysical Union (AGU), the American Meteorological Society, the Oceanography Society, and the American Association for the Advancement of Science.

Detailed CV