Opportunities for sailing on the JOIDES Resolution also exist for the Program's engineers. IODP engineers generally fall in two categories: operations superintendents and tool engineers. Operations superintendents oversee drilling operations during expeditions to ensure that as many of the scientific drilling objectives are achieved as possible. They communicate the needs of the scientists to the ship's drilling crew, maintain a continuous log of daily operations, and deal with shipboard equipment maintenance and repair. Typically, operations superintendents sail every third cruise, so they spend 4 months a year at sea. As scientific ocean drilling calls for drilling in deep water (up to 6 kilometers) and recovering rock samples from holes as deep as 2 kilometers, the tools needed did not exist at the beginning of the program several decades ago and had to be designed and built. This is the role of tool engineers, who maintain existing drilling and coring tools and design new tools when the need arises. Tool engineers sail when new tools are tested or first deployed. Often, IODP engineers come from a petroleum industry background but their desire for something out of the ordinary brings them to our door.

Staff Name: Ron Grout

Education: B.S. in Physics, Columbia University; M.B.A., University of Houston

Hometown: New York, NY

IODP Experience: Operations Manager (ODP), Operations Superintendent (IODP)

Life Experience: Radar Instructor (U.S. Marine Corps), Electronics Technician ( Vema oceanographic vessel), Instrument Engineer (North Sea), Electronics Supervisor ( Glomar Atlantic drill ship), Maintenance Superintendent (Global Marine), Assistant to Drilling Group V.P. (Global Marine)

Interests: Ron enjoys travel (places visited: Alaska, Angola, Antarctica (Palmer Station), Argentina, Australia, Azores Islands, Barbados, Bermuda, Brazil, Canary Islands, Chile, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Greenland, Guam, Hawaii, Italy, Japan, Korea, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Panama, People's Republic of China, Philippines, Senegal, Singapore, South Africa, Sweden, Switzerland, Taiwan, United Kingdom, Yugoslavia), reading, classical music, and his grandchildren

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