Professor J. Kirk Cochran received his PhD in geochemistry from Yale University. Following two years on the scientific staff of the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, he joined the faculty of Stony Brook University's Marine Sciences Research Center (now the School of Marine & Atmospheric Sciences) in 1983. He attained the rank of Professor in 1990 and served as Dean from September 1994 to January 1998. Professor Cochran's research interests include the use of naturally occurring radionuclides as tracers for oceanic processes and the fate of contaminants in the marine environment. He has studied biogeochemical processes in both the water column and bottom sediments, and has worked in coastal and open ocean environments as well as in lakes, rivers and groundwater. Professor Cochran has served as a consultant to the International Atomic Energy Agency and on numerous regional, national and international committees and advisory groups.