NOAA names Balsiger acting NMFS director

Tor-Eddie Fossbakk Balsiger succeeds former director, Bill Hogarth, who retired in late December. He has been regional administrator for the Fisheries Service’s Alaska region in Juneau since 2000. His new position is located in Silver Spring, Md. Previous assignments include regional science and research director for the Alaska Fisheries Science Center in Seattle, where he also served as deputy director of the center from 1991 through 1995, and leader of a fish stock assessment program within the center’s resource ecology and fisheries management division from 1977 to 1991. Balsiger earned a Bachelor of Science degree in forestry from Michigan Technological University in Houghton, Mich. He has a Master of Science degree in forest silviculture from Purdue University in Lafayette, Ind., and a PhD in quantitative ecology and natural resource management from the University of Washington in Seattle. He has authored or co-authored more than 33 publications in scientific journals and technical memoranda on fisheries. In 2002, President Bush awarded Balsiger a Meritorious Award for sustained superior accomplishments in the management of programs of the U.S. government and for noteworthy achievement of quality and efficiency in the public service.