Congratulations to retiring leaders in Instrumentation at EarthScope

[Scott Johnson]

Congratulations to retiring leaders in Instrumentation We have some bittersweet news to share—several long-term fixtures of our instrumentation programs are retiring this summer. Bob Woodward, currently Chief Operating Officer after 17 years with IRIS and EarthScope, will be retiring at the end of June. Bruce Beaudoin, now Portable Program Manager III after 27 years of service with the instrument facility team in Socorro, NM, will be retiring in early July. And Kent Anderson, who started with IRIS in 2004 and currently serves as VP of Instrumentation Operations, will sign off at the end of July. All three stayed on longer than they had originally planned in order to help the EarthScope Consortium navigate the implementation of our merger and development of a visionary proposal for the NSF’s National Geophysical Facility. The success of EarthScope and the conclusion of the current NSF SAGE and NSF GAGE awards owe so much to Bob, Kent, and Bruce. “We’ll miss the wisdom and expertise of these three leaders every single day. They’ve gone way beyond expectations to serve the geophysics community. It’s inspiring to think about how many scientific discoveries were made with their support over the years.” - Becks Bendick (EarthScope CEO) We congratulate all three, sincerely thank them for their far-reaching contributions to EarthScope’s mission, and wish them a happy and relaxing retirement free of budget meetings and report writing! But of course, we’re also sad to see them leave the team. "I appreciate the opportunity I’ve had to work with such an excellent team and have enjoyed the past 20 years with IRIS/EarthScope. With EarthScope coming to the inflection point moving into NGF, it’s time to make some room for new leadership to continue the fine work started—oh so many—years ago. It’s been an honor to be part of this organization and I wish the best for staff and the new leadership who will replace me and become part of an awesome NGF team." - Kent Anderson “I expected that being president of IRIS and working with Becks Bendick, then president of UNAVCO, to merge the two organizations into EarthScope would be the capstone activity of my career. But I couldn't resist staying on to be part of the start-up of the newly merged EarthScope Consortium. EarthScope is in great shape as it heads into the future and I am looking forward to some long-deferred adventures in my own future.” - Bob Woodward Bob, Bruce, and Kent certainly leave big shoes to fill, but we’re confident we’ll find the right folks to continue leading EarthScope forward. earthscope.org