PORT TOWNSEND — An interest in science is a reflection of natural human curiosity, according to the new executive director of a local interactive museum.

“Some people feel fear and intimidation about science, but it is only organized curiosity,” said Janine Boire, as she prepared to finish her first week in her new position leading the Port Townsend Marine Science Center at Fort Worden State Park.

“But the more you learn, the more accessible it becomes and reflects a natural part of what we are, and people can come here to satisfy their own personal curiosity,” she said.

Boire, 51, is taking over from Anne Murphy, who directed the center for 24 of the 30 years of its existence.

Murphy, 61, is retiring Wednesday.

Boire will earn a $72,000 annual salary, she said.

The center has three missions, according to Boire: education, environmental health, and support of the science, technology, engineering and math — or STEM — standards in public schools.

“I feel like I’ve been preparing for this job my whole life,” Boire said.

“When I was a kid growing up in Seattle, I used to spend weeks and weeks out all along the [North Olympic] Peninsula, all along the oyster beds, so it’s really like coming home.”

The marine science center has two exhibit halls on the beach at Fort Worden.

It hosts seminars, educational programs and maritime activities working toward these goals.

“One of our strengths comes from our science programs, where volunteers collect data and samples that are forwarded to NOAA [the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration] for use in their research,” Boire said.

“This helps us to gather information about the Salish Sea, its marine life and the health of the Sound.”

Boire intends to use Murphy as a resource in learning what she calls “a complex job.”

“We have a wonderful, emerging friendship,” Boire said of Murphy.

“She will stay in the community and will be accessible, but I think she is looking forward to relaxing and enjoying life with a little less weight on her shoulders.”

Boire began her career as a high school intern at the Pacific Science Center in Seattle in 1978 and moved to different positions over the next 12 years, including serving as volunteer coordinator, group sales coordinator and special events manager, according to her resume.

After leaving the Pacific Science Center, she was the founding director of the ¡Explora! Science Center in Albuquerque, N.M., where she tripled capital funding for the center from $4 million to $12 million and took the operating budget from zero to $1 million in three years, her resume says.

In 1997, Boire was awarded a fellowship for graduate study at Princeton University’s Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs.

After completing her master’s degree in public policy the next year, she worked at Princeton before working for Leadership for Environment and Development International in New York City.

Boire had served as executive director of the Discovery Science Center in Boise, Idaho, since 2004 before accepting the position in Port Townsend.

“When I worked at the Pacific Science Center, I found out what drives us to learn in an interactive science setting and saw the power of people’s own curiosity driving them to understand the complexity of the world,” Boire said.

“We normally see maybe one two dimensions of this complexity, but when you roll up your sleeves and start to play with things, it changes your interaction and increases the depth of understanding of what we as human beings have of the world.”

The Port Townsend Marine Science Center has seven full-time staff members and relies heavily on volunteers.

For more information, visit www.ptmsc.org/index.html, phone 360-385-5582 or 800-566-3932, or email info@ptmsc.org.

Jefferson County Editor Charlie Bermant can be reached at 360-385-2335 or cbermant@peninsuladailynews.com.