The U.S. IOOS Advisory Committee in Silver Spring, January 2026. From left to right: Eoin Howlett, Julio Morell, Monty Graham, Krisa Arzayus (Designated Federal Official), Eric Anderson, Glen Gawarkiewicz, Barb Kirkpatrick, Nick Rome, Steve Woll, Debra Hernandez, Catherine Edwards, Kristin Yarincik, and Laura Lilly.

The U.S. IOOS Advisory Committee held a meeting at the NOAA facility in Silver Spring, Maryland on January 20 and 21, 2026. This was the first in-person meeting for the Committee members that started their term in September 2024, and it was exciting to finally bring everyone together. During the meeting, the Committee heard updates from NOAA and NOAA partners and held working sessions to continue developing their work plan.

The Committee heard from new NOAA Administrator Neil Jacobs, PhD., about his priorities for NOAA, and were able to engage him in a follow-up discussion. National Ocean Service (NOS) Deputy Assistant Administrator Rachael Dempsey provided a briefing on NOS modeling strategy, followed by updates from IOOS staff on engagement with the private sector. They also heard from Curtis Marshall of the National Weather Service (NWS) Commercial Data Program, who presented an overview of the Mesonet data buy program and former Committee member Ruth Perry, who spoke about her new role in the Department of State and the opportunities for engagement with the IOOS enterprise.

During the working sessions, the Committee drew on common themes heard during the presentations, including increasing engagement with the private sector, optimizing modeling efforts, improving the visibility of return on investment, and focusing on observations to feed into models and AI. Previously, the Committee had identified two topics to develop recommendations for NOAA: AI and Private Sector Engagement. Taking those common themes, the Committee decided to shift these topics as follows:

• The AI topic would shift into an observations and modeling optimization focus, which may still include recommendations on AI.
• The private sector engagement topic would be modified to public private partnerships, that would include interagency partnerships and emphasizing return on investments.

Over the next several months, Committee members will further develop recommendations around these topics, to be presented and discussed at their next public meeting in the summer. The agenda and meeting materials from this January can be accessed here, as well as the meeting minutes when available.

The U.S. IOOS Advisory Committee is a federal advisory committee that provides advice to NOAA and the Interagency Ocean Observation Committee (IOOC), mandated by the ICOOS Act as amended by the Coastal Ocean Observations and Research Act. It is made up of non-federal experts that represent scientific institutions, marine technology industries, Coastal & Great Lakes use industries, non-governmental organizations, state, local, and tribal interests, and national and international ocean leadership. The Committee provides advice on a broad array of topics, including:

• Administration, operation, management, and maintenance of the U.S. IOOS, including integration of federal and non-federal assets and data management and communication aspects of U.S. IOOS, in fulfillment of the ICOOS Act.
• Expansion and periodic modernization and upgrade of technology components of U.S. IOOS.
• Identification of end-user communities, their needs for information provided by U.S. IOOS, and U.S. IOOS’ effectiveness in disseminating information to end-user communities and the general public; and any other purpose identified by the Administrator or the IOOC.

The committee Chair is Debra Hernandez, Southeast Coastal Ocean Observing Regional Association and the vice-chair is Eoin Howlett, Trinnex. For more information and short bios for all the members, please visit the U.S. IOOS Advisory Committee website.