National Science Panel Biographies

Chair

Dr. Denise Reed is a Professor in the Department of Geology and Geophysics at the University of New Orleans. Her research interests include coastal marsh response to sea-level rise, the contributions sediments and organic material to marsh soil development, and how these are affected by human alterations to marsh hydrology. She has worked in coastal marshes in northwest Europe, southern Chile and the Atlantic, Pacific and Gulf coasts of the US. She has been involved in restoration planning both in Louisiana and in California, and in scientifically evaluating the results of marsh restoration projects. Denise has served on numerous boards and panels concerning the effects of human alterations on coastal environments and efforts to restore them.

Members

Dr. R. Michael Erwin is a wildlife biologist with the US Geological Survey's Patuxent Wildlife Research Center, Laurel MD and Research Professor in Environmental Sciences at the University of Virginia, Charlottesville VA. His research interests and expertise are in the areas of waterbird ecology and conservation, coastal wetland ecology, management, and restoration, and biological conservation. He currently is involved in projects that address the effects of sea-level rise along the Atlantic Coast on marsh changes and waterbird habitats, the impacts of marsh management methods on the floral and faunal changes at selected Atlantic coastal National Wildlife Refuges, and is assessing how waterbirds respond to the restoration of a large 1,100 acre "Beneficial Use of Dredged Material" site, Poplar Island in Chesapeake Bay. Dr. Erwin is a Fellow of the American Ornithologists Union, past President of the Waterbird Society, and former editor of its journal, Waterbirds.

Dr. Jorg Imberger is a Professor of Environmental Engineering at the University of Western Australia, where he is the Chair of the Center for Water Research. His research interests include: the motion of stratified fluid in the context of environmental fluid dynamics, specifically the study of the motion and mixing of water in estuaries, reservoirs and lakes, and coastal seas. Turbulent buoyant jets, sewage outfalls, surface hot water discharges and natural and forced convection in the environment are further interests. The interaction of biological systems and the fluid motion and mixing is also a primary focus. Dr. Imberger is a Fellow with the Australian Academy of Technological Sciences and Engineering Institution of Engineers, the Australian Academy of Science, the Water Academy, and the Academy of Science, Argentina. He has published 4 books, 17 book contributions, 126 journal papers, 76 conference papers, and 110 report publications, and takes part in water resource projects throughout the world.

Dr. Samuel N. Luoma is a Senior Research Hydrologist with the US Geological Survey. Since 2000 he has served as the first Lead Scientist for the California Bay-Delta Authority’s CALFED Bay-Delta program, an innovative, $8billionUS, program that covers environmental restoration over 40% of California’s watershed, and management issues for 60% of California’s water supply. Luoma’s research interests are in the bioavailability and effects of pollutants in aquatic environments and developing better ways to merge environmental science and policy. He is an author on more than 160 peer-reviewed publications. He wrote the textbook, Introduction to Environmental Issues, in 1984; is an editorial advisor for Marine Ecology Progress Series and was editor of Marine Environmental Research from 1995 – 2002. He is a Fellow in the American Association for the Advancement of Science and has received several awards for his work in environmental toxicology and water management. He also serves nationally and internationally as an expert or advisor on technical issues including the role of scientists in managing water issues, science and sustainable development, sediment quality criteria, mining issues, irrigation drainage issues, metals hazards, and environmental monitoring.

Dr. Jerry Schubel joined the Aquarium of the Pacific as President and CEO in June 2002. He is President and CEO emeritus of the New England Aquarium where he served from 1994 to 2001. He is currently Visiting Professor and Director of the Alternative Futures Forum, Washington College in Chestertown, Maryland. An accomplished and respected administrator and scientist, Dr. Schubel was Dean and Director of the State University of New York at Stony Brook’s Marine Sciences Research Center from 1974 to November 1994. The Center is a world-renowned coastal oceanographic institution. For three years in the mid-1980s, Dr. Schubel served as Provost at the University and created a number of research institutes focusing on a variety of issues including regional policy studies, the mathematical sciences, the humanities, and social analysis. Prior to 1994, Dr. Schubel was an adjunct professor, research scientist and Associate Director of The Johns Hopkins University’s Chesapeake Bay Institute. Dr. Schubel has written extensively for both academic and scientific journals as well as for general audiences. He has published approximately 200 scientific papers and is the author or editor of several books including The Life and Death of the Chesapeake Bay. An accomplished photographer, Schubel’s work illustrates The Living Chesapeake, a book he also wrote. Dr. Schubel is the Vice Chair and Chair Elect of the National Sea Grant Review Panel and serves on the Census of Marine Life U.S. National Committee and the National Science Foundation Education and Human Resources Advisory Committee. Dr. Schubel holds a Bachelor of Science degree from Alma College, Alma, Michigan; a Masters degree from Harvard University; and a Ph.D. in oceanography from The Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, Maryland. He received an honorary doctorate from the Massachusetts Maritime Academy in 1998.

Charles A. (“Si”) Simenstad, Research Associate Professor at the University of Washington’s School of Aquatic and Fishery Sciences (SAFS), is an estuarine and coastal marine ecologist and Coordinator of the Wetland Ecosystem Team (WET). Si has conducted research on estuarine and coastal marine ecosystems throughout Puget Sound, the Washington coast, and Alaska for over thirty years. Much of this research has focused on the functional role of estuarine and coastal habitats to support juvenile Pacific salmon and other fish and wildlife, and the associated ecological interactions that are responsible for enhancing their production and life history diversity. His research concerns primarily natural (e.g., basic) ecosystem-, community- and habitat-level interactions, with emphasis on predator-prey relationships, the sources, organization and flow of organic matter through food webs, and landscape-scale interaction between estuarine physicochemical and ecological processes. Recent research has integrated ecosystem dynamics with applied issues such as restoration and rehabilitation of estuarine and coastal wetland ecosystems, and ecological approaches to evaluating the success of coastal wetland restoration at ecosystem and landscape scales. He holds a B.S. (1969) and M.S. (1971) from the School of Fisheries at the University of Washington.

Dr. John Teal’s professional career began in the early 1950’s with his Harvard Ph.D. thesis on the trophic relationships in a tiny cold spring in Massachusetts. He then studied salt marshes at University of Georgia Marine Institute at Sapelo Island as Asst. Prof. After four years, he went to Dalhousie University in Halifax at the new oceanography establishment in eastern Canada. He joined Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution in 1961 and has been Scientist Emeritus since 1995. In addition to research on coastal wetlands he has worked on: effects of hydrostatic pressure on deep sea animals, physiology of large, warm blooded fishes, bird migration over the oceans, oil pollution, wastewater treatment, and restoration ecology. He now consults on constructed wetlands for wastewater treatment, marsh restoration in fresh, brackish and salt wetlands and cleanup of polluted wetlands and waters. He has been involved since 1993 in a salt marsh restoration project in Delaware Bay that encompasses 32 square miles. He has served on National Academy committees, editorial boards of scientific journals, published in both the scientific and popular literature, and served on local committees. Always interested in the willingness and/or unwillingness of professional scientists to take part in public policy decisions, he has served on the board of the Conservation Law Foundation of New England since 1978 and been vice chair since 1980. He was president of the Society of Wetland Scientists in 1998-9.

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