Ian Zelo is currently the acting NW and Great Lakes branch chief for the Assessment and Restoration Division.

He has recently transitioned from leading the Deepwater Horizon oyster assessment to a new role heading the team charged with reviewing large scale models to assess injury to water column resources.

He began his relationship with NOAA in 2000 as a Coastal Management Fellow with the State of Florida. He officially joined the agency in 2002 to work on ORR’s Abandoned Vessel Program. Between then and now he has had the opportunity to play a number of roles in the Office, staffing both ARD and ERD. The work has been diverse and has included everything from local government support and data management to public speaking, teaching and many aspects of spill response and NRDA.

Long before joining NOAA, Ian was an East Coast native, growing up on Long Island and braving four long winters in upstate New York to get his bachelor’s at Cornell University. He eventually completed a Masters of Marine Affairs at the University of Washington.

Between degrees he was part of a blue crab research team at the Smithsonian, investigated the chemical ecology of sponges in North Carolina and spent two years as a carpenter in the Hamptons.

Ian is fortunate to say that the challenges he currently faces at work – both on Deepwater and as a manager – are the greatest of my career. He is also the proud dad of four little Zelos and an avid woodworker in his spare time.

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