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NSF Names New Acting Head of Polar Programs

The National Science Foundation (NSF) has named John B. Hunt as acting director of the Office of Polar Programs (OPP). He will assume his new position on September 8, 1997.

Hunt currently serves as acting assistant director for mathematical and physical sciences (MPS) at NSF. He has held positions of increasing responsibility within MPS as program director, division executive officer, acting division director, and directorate executive officer. As a result, he has considerable experience managing large, complex programs. Before coming to NSF's chemistry division in 1983, Hunt was a professor of chemistry at Catholic University, where he had served as a faculty member since 1962. He received his Ph.D. in inorganic chemistry from the University of Chicago in 1962.

Among other past professional experience, Hunt served on the Board of Directors of the Marine Science Consortium at Wallops Island, Virginia for seven years and taught courses in chemical oceanography there. He also taught chemistry for two years at the U.S. Naval Academy.

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