Dr. Shirley Pomponi

Dr. Shirley Pomponi is President and Chief Executive Officer of the Harbor Branch Oceanographic Institution headquartered in Fort Pierce. Dr. Pomponi has been with Harbor Branch since 1984 and has been instrumental in building the institution's drug discovery program, which she directed from 1994 to 2002. Dr. Pomponi currently chairs the National Academy of Sciences Ocean Studies Board, and serves on the Ocean Research Advisory Panel, the BIOFlorida board of directors, the executive committee of the Consortium for Oceanographic Research and Education (CORE), and the U.S. committee for the Census of Marine Life. She has held numerous other positions in establishing federal ocean policy, including an appointment to the President's Panel on Ocean Exploration in 2000. Dr. Pomponi received her Ph.D. in Biological Oceanography from the University of Miami in 1977.