Evan T. Bloom is a Senior Fellow at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars in Washington, DC. He retired from the U.S. Department of State in December 2020, where he held various positions including Acting Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Oceans and Fisheries and Director of the Office of Ocean and Polar Affairs. He led U.S. Antarctic policy as head of the U.S. delegations to the annual Antarctic Treaty Consultative Meetings and the Commission for the Conservation of Antarctic Marine Living Resources from 2006 to 2020. He also served as the lead U.S. negotiator for the successful establishment of the world’s largest marine protected area, in Antarctica’s Ross Sea. He supervised U.S. representation in the Arctic Council, the International Maritime Organization and the International Seabed Authority. He led the U.S. delegation to high seas treaty negotiations (biodiversity beyond national jurisdiction) at the UN and chaired the Executive Committee of the federal Extended Continental Shelf Task Force. He joined the Department as a lawyer in 1991 after practicing law in Tokyo and Washington, DC. Mr. Bloom is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations and a fellow of the Explorers Club. He graduated from Princeton University (A.B.) and Columbia Law School (JD).