Dr. Lauren Alexander Augustine PhD ’03 Named Executive Director of National Academies’ Gulf Research Program
Dr. Lauren Alexander Augustine PhD ’03 has been appointed to lead the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine’s Gulf Research Program. The $500 million Program—established in 2013 as part of the settlement against two companies involved in the Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill—works to enhance the safety, human health, and environmental resources of offshore systems in the Gulf of Mexico region. As executive director of the Program, Augustine will oversee management of its funds, which are set to continue until 2043.
“I look forward to building on the foundation of this program’s first five years and continuing its evolution into a flagship program that benefits the people of the Gulf,” said Augustine in a press release. “The region faces challenges that are wide-ranging, complex, and dynamic. This program provides an extraordinary opportunity for science to address these challenges in direct and collaborative ways.”
Augustine previously served as director of the National Academies’ Resilient America Program. She received her Harvard PhD in an interdisciplinary program that combined hydrology, geomorphology, and ecology.
Image courtesy of the National Academies.
