Florida Tech Professor Appointed to Dept. of Interior Post

– Dr. John Trefry, Florida Tech professor of oceanography, was appointed by Secretary of Interior Gale A. Norton to serve a two-year term as a member of
the Outer Continental Shelf (OCS) Scientific Committee of the Minerals Management Advisory Board. The 12-member committee advises on the feasibility,
appropriateness and scientific value of the OCS Environmental Studies Program. This includes the relevance of the research and data being produced.

Trefry, who earned the prestigious 2002 gold medal from the Florida Academy of Sciences, has a 25-year history of studying potential environmental impacts
from offshore oil exploration and production.

Trefry is currently involved in studies in the Alaskan Arctic and the Gulf of Mexico. Substantial funding from the U.S. Dept. of the Interior has allowed
him to assess the long-term cumulative impacts of offshore drilling in these areas.

His 1985 cover story on the Mississippi River in the respected journal Science, on lead in the river, showed him to be one of the first to prove how
banning leaded gasoline in the U.S. positively impacted the environment. He also has been involved with oil-related studies in numerous locations around
the world, including Sakhalin Island and Trinidad.

Trefry co-discovered deep-sea hydrothermal vents in the Atlantic Ocean. Before this find, the vents were thought to exist only in the Pacific.