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CORVALLIS, Ore. - Andrew Rosenberg left Oregon State University in 1980 for a life using science to help improve the world's oceans and marine life. There have been successes, he says, but the challenges ahead are great.

 Rosenberg, now the dean of life sciences and agriculture at the University of New Hampshire and a senior fellow with the World Wildlife Fund, returns to Corvallis this month to talk about his career and the challenges that lie ahead.

Rosenberg will speak Tuesday, Feb. 12, at 7:30 p.m. at OSU's LaSells Stewart Center. The free lecture is titled "The Once and Future Struggle: Challenges in Marine Fisheries Management." The talk is part of the John Byrne Lecture Series, co-sponsored by the College of Oceanic and Atmospheric Sciences and Oregon Sea Grant.

"The oceans are definitely in worse shape today than 20 years ago," he said. "Fishing fleets have built up enormously in that time. The greatest challenge is to go beyond ending overfishing and really rebuild ecosystem structure and function. That means changing the way we view and use the ocean, a tough task."

Before being named dean by UNH in 2000, Rosenberg was deputy director of the National Marine Fisheries Service at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. He worked in a variety of areas of the NMFS since 1992, as both researcher and administrator. He has repeatedly testified before the U.S. Congress on issues ranging from endangered species to complex fishery management policies to the agency's budget initiatives, and was Northeast regional administrator for the service for four years.

In those posts, he played a major role in developing and implementing recovery plans for New England fisheries that now are showing improvements. Rosenberg also implemented protection plans for marine mammals such as harbor porpoise and right whales, and endangered species like Atlantic salmon.

He described his work as "more policy than chasing around at sea," but said those policies have had positive results.

"Some might disagree with the conservation measures I took, but I feel comfortable with them," he said. "I spent a lot of time trying to recover overfished fisheries and that helps fishing families."

Prior to his tenure at the fisheries service, he was an assistant professor in environmental technology at the Imperial College of Science and Technology at the University of London, England.

Rosenberg earned a doctorate in biology in 1984 from Dalhousie University, Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada, and a master's of science degree in oceanography in 1980 from OSU. He earned his bachelor's degree in fisheries biology in 1978 from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst.

Last summer, the World Wildlife Fund named him a senior fellow to its Marine Conservation Program. He was also one of 16 people named to serve on the National Commission on Ocean Policy, which will examine ways in which the U.S. manages its ocean and coastal policies and programs.

Rosenberg has been appointed by the president and U.S. Secretary of Commerce to head many delegations over the years, serving as commissioner and head of delegation to the North Atlantic Salmon Conservation Organization and the Northwest Atlantic Fisheries Organization. He also has served as U.S. delegate to the United Nations Food and Agricultural Organization Committee on Fisheries.