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Seismologist Dogan Seber, director of the Geoinformatics Lab at the San Diego Supercomputer Center (SDSC) at UC San Diego and project manager of GEON, "Cyberinfrastructure for the Geosciences," has been appointed to a two-year term on the Information Technology Committee of the American Geophysical Union (AGU). "In today's science, expertise in IT plays a crucial role," said AGU president John Orcutt, professor and Deputy Director, Scientific Affairs for Research and Associate Vice Chancellor for Marine Sciences at Scripps Institution of Oceanography (SIO). "Dogan Seber will bring valuable experience to the AGU IT committee in applying leading-edge cyberinfrastructure in the geosciences and electronic publishing. In particular, his experience in geographic information systems (GIS) will be invaluable."

Established in 1919, the AGU has grown into the world's leading geosciences organization, with an international community of over 41,000 scientists from 130 countries representing all disciplines of the geophysical sciences.

"Not only is this well-deserved recognition for Dogan, it also reflects the role that SDSC is playing in developing advanced cyberinfrastructure in projects like GEON," said Chaitan Baru, director of SDSC's Data and Knowledge Systems program and coordinator of the IT component of GEON. "This is a positive step in making the important knowledge we're gaining in our work in a variety of shared cyberinfrastructure projects such as GEON, BIRN, and SEEK, available to the wider geosciences community."

The AGU's IT Committee is charged with exploring, studying, and proposing ways to facilitate and encourage the use of computers and broader information technologies to advance the geophysical sciences worldwide. The IT Committee also oversees the activities of a newly established Data Committee, a subcommittee of the AGU Publications Committee, which will address the vital issues of searching, sharing, and preserving today's growing scientific data collections.

Seber received his undergraduate degree in geophysics from the Istanbul Technical University in his native Turkey, and his Ph.D. in seismology and geophysics from Cornell. In addition to his geoscience and IT research, Seber is also active in geoscience education, and was recently elected Chair of the steering committee of DLESE, the Digital Library for Earth System Education. Sponsored by the National Science Foundation, DLESE is a major national community effort involving educators, students, and scientists working together to improve the quality and efficiency of teaching about the Earth system, at all levels from "K through gray."