The SWFSC is pleased to welcome Dr. Francisco (Cisco) Werner as the new permanent Science and Research Director. 
Dr. Werner begins his new position on January 3, 2011. He brings to NMFS a deep and broad blend of marine ecosystem research and science management expertise. His career spans more than 25 years and includes authorship or co-authorship of over 90 refereed publications. His background will compliment the focus on marine ecosystem research at SWFSC.
Dr. Werner has spent his professional career in academia, with his research efforts spanning the study of the structure and function of marine ecosystems, ocean circulation physics, and the development and implementation of ocean and coastal observing and forecasting systems. Cisco earned his BSc in Mathematics from the University of Washington (UW, 1978) and an MSc and a PhD in Oceanography also from UW in 1981 and 1984.
Previously, he was the Director of the Institute of Marine and Coastal Sciences (IMCS) at Rutgers University. Prior to his joining Rutgers, he was on the faculty at Dartmouth College’s Thayer School of Engineering (1984-1989), the Skidaway Institute of Oceanography (1989-1993), and from 1993 to 2008 at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill’s Marine Sciences Department (MASC). At UNC-CH, he served as Department Chairman from 2000 to 2007 and was the George & Alice Welsh Distinguished Professor. From 2002 to 2007 he served at the Chairman of the GLOBEC (Global Ocean Ecosystems Dynamics) International Scientific Steering Committee and co-Chaired the PICES MODEL Task Team. He is presently the co-Editor-in-Chief of Progress in Oceanography.
Cisco's research has focused on understanding components of the marine environment through numerical models. His research areas include the development of physical and biological models of marine ecosystems in the NW Atlantic, the US South Atlantic Bight and the North Pacific. He has studied the effects of physical forcing on lower trophic levels (nutrients, phytoplankton and zooplankton) and the subsequent effect on the structure, function and abundance of commercially or ecologically important species such as cod, scallops, menhaden and Pacific herring. He has also contributed to the implementation of real-time circulation models in the Southeast region of the US as part of SEACOOS (the South-East Atlantic Coastal Ocean Observing System). He has been funded by NSF, NOAA, ONR, SeaGrant, among others, and has authored/co-authored over ninety refereed publications.