Geoff Wheat Named New NIUST Director

New leader brings ‘a unique combination of scientific and technological expertise’

Geoff Wheat

Geoff Wheat

OXFORD, Miss – Geoff Wheat has been named director of the National Institute for Undersea Science at Technology, which is headquartered at the University of Mississippi.

NIUST, which has been based at UM since its establishment in 2002, is a joint effort between Ole Miss and the University of Southern Mississippi in partnership with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. NIUST’s overall goal is “to bring together academic or other research organizations to promote, conduct and lead integrated, multidisciplinary undersea research commensurate with the directives of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.”

Former NIUST director Raymond Carl Highsmith died of cancer in July. Highsmith had been director since 2005.

“I’m excited to be named the new director of NIUST and follow in the footsteps of Dr. Highsmith, a long-time mentor,” Wheat said. “This position with the support of the deep-sea operational teams and the UM administration will allow UM to expand its leadership role in technological developments and scientific achievements of deep-sea environments.”

The new director has a bachelor’s degree in mathematics from the University of New Hampshire and both a master’s and doctorate in oceanography from the University of Washington.

Wheat is a highly respected and productive geochemist and oceanographer with two decades of experience heading collaborative and individual ocean science projects, which have been sponsored by federal and state agencies, as well as foundations. His work has been continuously funded by the National Science Foundation and he’s been to sea 70 times, 43 of those expeditions have used a submersible or remotely operated underwater vehicle, and eight were part of the prestigious Ocean Drilling Program, NSF’s longest running and most successful international collaboration.

“Dr. Wheat brings a unique combination of scientific and technological expertise to UM and NIUST,” said Alice Clark, UM vice chancellor for research and sponsored programs. “Many of his impressive accomplishments are related to the design, development and use of innovative new technologies to understand the ocean environment, especially the extreme environment of the deep ocean. We are confident that NIUST will flourish under his skillful leadership and his expertise will be a tremendous asset to our university’s already strong culture of interdisciplinary research in environmental sciences.”

For more information on NIUST and its programs, go to http://niust.org/.