UMass Dartmouth

Mark A. Altabet, PhD

Department Chairperson and Professor
Department of Estuarine and Ocean Sciences, School for Marine Science & Technology
University of Massachusetts Dartmouth
email: maltabet@umassd.edu
phone: 508.999.8622

Areas of research/interest: Dr. Altabet’s research focuses on major marine biogeochemical cycles, as they operate present and past, using natural variations in isotopic ratio (e.g., 15N/14N, 13C/12C, and 18O/16O). Focus is on the global N cycle and its interactions with climate change, atmospheric CO2 concentration, and coastal eutrophication.

Lauran Brewster, PhD

Assistant Professor
Department of Fisheries Oceanography, School for Marine Science & Technology
University of Massachusetts Dartmouth
email: lbrewster@umassd.edu
phone: 508.999.8193

Areas of research/interest: Areas of research/interest: Dr. Brewster has a broad range of research interests spanning fish physiology, fish behavior and ecosystem-based fisheries management tools. Her research focuses on understanding temporal, environmental and anthropogenic impacts on fishes by using animal-borne tags, quantitative analyses and citizen science.

Steven X. Cadrin, PhD

Professor
Department of Fisheries Oceanography, School for Marine Science & Technology
University of Massachusetts Dartmouth
email: scadrin@umassd.edu
phone: 508.910.6358

Areas of research/interest: Areas of research/interest: Dr. Cadrin’s research includes general fisheries science that is relevant to resource management; population modeling of fishery resources; spatial population structure and movement; collaborative research with fishermen

Changsheng Chen, PhD

Commonwealth Professor and Montgomery Charter Chair
Department of Fisheries Oceanography, School for Marine Science & Technology
University of Massachusetts Dartmouth
email: c1chen@umassd.edu
phone: 508.910.6388

Areas of research/interest: Dr. Chen is a coastal oceanographer who is interested in modeling and observational exploration of coastal ocean circulation, oceanic frontal processes, turbulent mixing/bottom boundary layer dynamics, chaotic mixing, western boundary currents, internal waves and tides, and biological/physical interaction. His recent research covers a broad range of scales, from global to basin, coastal ocean, and estuaries. He is the leader of the Marine Ecosystem Dynamics Modeling Research Laboratory, which has developed an innovative unstructured grid, finite-volume coastal ocean model (FVCOM) for the ocean community.

Geoffrey Cowles, PhD

Associate Professor
Department of Fisheries Oceanography, School for Marine Science & Technology
University of Massachusetts Dartmouth
email: gcowles@umassd.edu
phone: 508.910.6397

Areas of research/interest: Dr. Cowles’ research interests are centered on the application of numerical methods to problems in fluid and ecosystem dynamics. They include both scheme development, focused on implicit time stepping and adaptive methods, as well as applications, including sediment transport and near bottom flow, larval dispersal, individual-based modeling, and the use of circulation models to improve estimates of fish movement.

Adam Delargy, PhD

Assistant Research Professor
Department of Fisheries Oceanography, School for Marine Science & Technology
University of Massachusetts Dartmouth
email: adelargy@umassd.edu
phone: 508.910.6013

Areas of research/interest: Areas of research/interest: Dr. Delargy's research focuses on marine fish and invertebrate population sampling, biology, and modeling. This research usually has a strong quantitative focus and is applied in fisheries research and their management.

Gavin Fay, PhD

Associate Professor
Department of Fisheries Oceanography, School for Marine Science & Technology
University of Massachusetts Dartmouth
email gfay@umassd.edu
phone: 508.910.6363

Areas of research/interest: Dr. Fay’s research focuses on developing interdisciplinary modeling approaches to extend the scope of applications for fisheries and ecosystem assessment methods, and testing the performance of decision support tools for living marine resource management. Current and recent research includes: (1) management strategy evaluation to test the performance of ecosystem-based fisheries management strategies in the Northeast US, (2) developing methods for including regime shifts in productivity in fisheries harvest control rules, (3) assessing economic effects of fishing scenarios through ecological-economic model coupling, and (4) evaluating ecosystem consequences of ocean acidification

Avijit Gangopadhyay, PhD

Commonwealth Professor
Department of Estuarine and Ocean Sciences, School for Marine Science & Technology
University of Massachusetts Dartmouth
email: avijit.gangopadhyay@umassd.edu
phone: 508.910.6330

Areas of research/interest: Dr. Gangopadhyay’s primary research interest is in ocean circulation and numerical modeling. He is particularly interested in (i) applying mesoscale and finer resolution models for operational synoptic ocean forecasting and (ii) understanding the multi-scale response of ecosystems to multi-scale climatic forcing using innovative basin-scale modeling and data-model assimilation and synthesis approaches

Pingguo He, PhD

Department Chairperson and Professor
Department of Fisheries Oceanography, School for Marine Science & Technology
University of Massachusetts Dartmouth
email: phe@umassd.edu
phone: 508.910.6323

Areas of research/interest: Dr. He’s research focuses on fish behavior and fishing gear, and sustainable utilization of fisheries resource of the northeastern U.S. and beyond. This includes the use of flume tank modeling techniques, computer simulations, sea trials, underwater video observations, and statistical methods to understand fish behavior near fishing gears and in their natural habitat. His research extends to the application of fish behavioral knowledge to fishing gear designs and operations to reduce bycatch, discards, megafauna interactions, and impact of fishing on the seabed

Micheline Labrie, PhD

Assistant Professor
Department of Estuarine and Ocean Sciences, School for Marine Science & Technology
University of Massachusetts Dartmouth
email: mlabrie@umassd.edu
phone: 508.910.6314

Areas of research/interest: Dr. Labrie’s expertise is in biogeochemistry, specifically, testing innovative technologies aimed at mitigating nutrient and plastic pollution in freshwater and coastal systems. Her research and technical staff oversee both the Biodegradability laboratory and the Coastal Systems Program. The facilities offer state-of-the-art polymer biodegradability testing and chemical analysis of surface and groundwater. Dr. Labrie is a participating member of the ASTM International Plastics subcommittee and is the principal or co-principal investigator on several current and pending research projects funded by the Massachusetts Technology Collaborative, Office of Naval Research, Massachusetts municipal governments, and industry.

Steven E. Lohrenz, PhD

Professor
Department of Estuarine and Ocean Sciences, School for Marine Science & Technology
University of Massachusetts Dartmouth
email: slohrenz@umassd.edu
phone: 508.910.6550

Areas of research/interest: Dr. Lohrenz’s focus of research is the study of biological distributions and productivity as well as cycling of carbon and nutrients in coastal and ocean waters using ship-based measurements and optical and remotely sensed observations. Recent research includes characterization of land-ocean interactions using coupled ecosystem models to assess impacts of climate and land use change, optical assessment of air-sea carbon fluxes in river-dominated margins, optical detection and assessment of harmful algal blooms, and application of remote sensing and in situ optical measurements and models for description of primary production and phytoplankton distributions. Dr. Lohrenz has authored or co-authored more than 65 peer-reviewed articles in scientific journals.

Daniel MacDonald, PhD

Professor (Civil and Environmental Engineering)
University of Massachusetts Dartmouth
email: dmacdonald@umassd.edu
phone: 508.910.6334

Areas of research/interest: Dr. MacDonald’s focus of research is stratified hydrodynamics, turbulence and frontal dynamics, with specific emphasis on estuarine flows, river plumes, and industrial discharges; marine renewable energy; coastal and environmental engineering.

Pia Moisander, PhD

Professor (Biology) and Affiliate Faculty
Department of Estuarine and Ocean Sciences, School for Marine Science & Technology
University of Massachusetts Dartmouth
email: pmoisander@umassd.edu
phone: 508.999.8222

Areas of research/interest: Dr. Moisander’s research interests include marine microbial ecology, with emphasis on the microbial influence in marine biogeochemical cycles; specifically, the nitrogen cycle. The research combines molecular, genomic, microbiological, and biogeochemical approaches. Recent research focus on marine zooplankton microbiomes, nitrogen fixation, and biofilms

Jianhua Qi, PhD

Research Associate Professor
Department of Fisheries Oceanography, School for Marine Science & Technology
email: jqi@umassd.edu
phone: 508.910.6355

Areas of research/interest: Research Associate Professor Qi is a physical oceanographer who is interested in numerical modeling and observational exploration of coastal ocean circulation as well as physical processes such as temperature and salinity. His recent research covers a wide range of numerical model couplings, including FVCOM coastal model, WWIII wave model and atmosphere model, with the UFS/NUOPC infrastructure. He is also involved in numerical coastal ocean model development along the east coast of Maine. He is a major member of the Marine Ecosystem Dynamics Modeling Research Laboratory and gives technical support for FVCOM users worldwide.

Kevin Stokesbury, PhD

Dean and Commonwealth Professor
School for Marine Science & Technology
email: kstokesbury@umassd.edu
phone: 508.910.8209

Areas of research/interest: Dr. Stokesbury’s research focuses on spatial distributions of marine fishes and invertebrates, how they vary temporally, on different scales (km, m and cm), and in different environmental conditions, and how these variations, affect community structure, population dynamics, and fisheries.

Miles A. Sundermeyer, PhD

Professor
Department of Estuarine and Ocean Sciences, School for Marine Science & Technology
University of Massachusetts Dartmouth
email: msundermeyer@umassd.edu
phone: 508.999.8892

Areas of research/interest: Dr. Sundermeyer’s research interests include small-scale vertical and horizontal mixing processes, dye release and Lagrangian drifter studies, numerical modeling of two- and three-dimensional turbulent flows, numerical modeling of physical and biological interactions.

Amit Tandon, PhD

Professor (ME) and Affiliate Faculty
Department of Estuarine and Ocean Sciences, School for Marine Science & Technology
University of Massachusetts Dartmouth
email: atandon@umassd.edu
phone: 508.999.8357

Areas of research/interest: Dr. Tandon’s research interests range from small-scale turbulence in the upper boundary layer to sub-mesoscale frontal gradients and mesoscale eddies, and their role in setting up the ocean circulation and the air-sea interaction. His recent work involves theory, simulations and observational analysis of sub-mesoscale features in the ocean. He collaborates with other observational oceanographers, theoreticians and numerical modelers to investigate the effect of multiple sub-grid processes on ocean circulation. He is also interested in lab experiments to demonstrate oceanographic concepts in teaching.

Jefferson T. Turner, PhD

Chancellor Professor
Department of Fisheries Oceanography, School for Marine Science & Technology
University of Massachusetts Dartmouth
email: jturner@umassd.edu
phone: 508.910.6332

Areas of research/interest: Dr. Turner’s research interests range from marine plankton, zooplankton feeding, plankton communities of Boston Harbor and adjacent waters, food web accumulation and transport of red tide toxins, and interactions between copepod feeding and reproductive success.