Whereas Dr. Yin Soong is retiring in June, 2007 after 30 years of service to Millersville University in the Department of Earth Sciences; and

Whereas Dr. Soong has advised and mentored numerous students, many of whom have advanced to graduate school on graduation from Millersville University, including one student who received the Secretary of the Navy Scholarship for graduate studies; and

Whereas Dr. Soong was instrumental in the design of the curriculum for the oceanography program that has been used since 1980 at Millersville University, which included tracks in biological, chemical, geological and physical oceanography, and again was instrumental in the design of the recently revised and updated curriculum in Ocean and Marine Sciences that reflects the current and forecast future needs of students in the marine science disciplines; and

Whereas Dr. Soong has not only taught in and supported the Ocean and Marine Sciences curriculum, but has also been a significant contributor to the Meteorology program at Millersville University by developing and teaching several required and elective courses for both meteorology and ocean and marine sciences majors, including: ESCI 282 – FORTRAN Programming for Earth Sciences Applications; ESCI 386 – IDL Programming for Advanced Earth Sciences Applications; and ESCI 380 – Remote Sensing; and

Whereas Dr. Soong was key in initiating and designing the oceanography and remote sensing laboratories, for which he acquired and built a research grade rotating table, oversaw the building and installation of a wave tank, and was principle investigator on a successful grant from the National Science Foundation which equipped the department’s remote sensing laboratory with hardware and software; and

Whereas Dr. Soong carried out research that included being the first oceanographer to discover a cold-core eddy in the South China Sea, for which he was lead author on a cover article in EOS – Transactions of the American Geophysical Union, and was also the principle investigator on a grant for the first university-owned direct satellite receiving station at the National Taiwan Ocean University; and

Whereas Dr. Soong was a constant advocate for state-of-the-art research facilities and equipment for students, and as such served as Millersville University’s representative on the board of directors and vice-president of research for the Marine Science Consortium at NASA’s Wallops Island facility, and as principle investigator for a National Science Foundation grant to equip the research vessel R/V Parker with high precision research-grade instruments for use by students and faculty;

Therefore be it resolved that Dr. Yin Soong be granted the honorary title of Professor of Earth Sciences (Oceanography) Emeritus.