URI oceanography graduate school gets new dean

Providence, R.I. (AP) — The University of Rhode Island has announced that an ocean scientist in North Carolina will be the new dean at the oceanography school.

URI says Bruce Corliss will become dean of the Graduate School of Oceanography in September, responsible for overseeing its academic, research and outreach programs.

Corliss got his doctorate and a master's from the school. He is currently director of the Duke University/University of North Carolina Oceanographic Consortium, a group of institutions in that state that operate the Research Vessel Cape Hatteras.

URI says it conducted an international search.

The Graduate School of Oceanography, founded in 1961, is one of the leading marine research institutions. It has 90 graduate students and 200 faculty, researchers and staff at the university's Narragansett Bay campus.