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CORVALLIS - Oregon State University oceanographer and professor emeritus William G. Pearcy was unanimously chosen by The North Pacific Marine Science Organization (PICES) Science Board as the recipient of the 2003 Wooster Award.

The award is given annually to an individual who has made significant scientific contributions to North Pacific marine science. It will be presented to Pearcy during the opening session of the PICES meeting in Seoul, Korea, on Oct. 10.

Pearcy received the award, PICES board members say, because he is a "world-renowned authority on many aspects of biological oceanography . . . and has made significant contributions to many areas of marine research, including fisheries oceanography, the ecology of deep-sea and open ocean fishes and squids, the tropic dynamics of marine fishes, and pollution and trace metals in the marine environment."

Pearcy joined OSU in 1960 after receiving his doctorate from Yale University. An expert on Pacific salmon, he has published more than 150 scientific papers on ecology, oceanography and general science, including biology of deep-sea fish and investigation of pollution and trace metals in the environment and the food chain. He wrote "Ocean Ecology of North Pacific Salmonids," a publication that forges his years of observations into a compendium of Northeast Pacific salmon ecology. It encompasses all five salmon and two trout species of Oncorhynchus, but gives particular attention to Oregon coho salmon, the author's specialty for the past decade.

PICES is an intergovernmental scientific organization established in 1992. Its present members include Canada, People's Republic of Japan, Republic of Korea, Russian Federation, and the United States of America. The organization promotes and coordinates marine research and exchange of information about the northern North Pacific and adjacent seas.

In addition to his research and scholarship, Pearcy has been a major adviser to more than 30 graduate students in both master's and doctoral programs, and has served on the committees of more than 50 other students.