UMass Dartmouth

Mark A. Altabet, PhD

Department Chairperson and Commonwealth 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

Department Chairperson and 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.

Melissa R. Cronin, PhD

Department of Fisheries Oceanography, School for Marine Science & Technology
University of Massachusetts Dartmouth 
email: Melissa.cronin@umassd.edu
phone: 508.910.6390

Areas of research/interest: Dr. Cronin is an interdisciplinary marine conservation science who studies social-ecological systems. Her research interests include shark and ray conservation, conflict between small and large-scale fisheries, collaborative research in fishing communities, and developing and evaluating interventions to promote safe and inclusive scientific fieldwork environments.

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

Pingguo He, PhD

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.

Siqi Li, PhD

Assistant Research Professor
Department of Fisheries Oceanography, School for Marine Science & Technology
University of Massachusetts Dartmouth
email: sli4@umassd.edu

Areas of research/interest:  Dr. Li’s research focuses on the development and application of high-resolution numerical models for coastal and estuarine systems. His work centers on unstructured-grid finite-volume modeling, ocean–atmosphere–wave coupling, and data-model integration. He actively contributes to the development and application of the Finite-Volume Community Ocean Model (FVCOM) and the Northeast Coastal Ocean Forecast System (NECOFS), with applications ranging from operational forecasting and hindcast reanalysis to coastal hazards, search and rescue, and offshore wind energy impacts.

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.

Christopher Rillahan, PhD

Assistant Research Professor
Department of Fisheries Oceanography, School for Marine Science & Technology
University of Massachusetts Dartmouth
email: crillahan@umassd.edu
phone: 508.910.6932

Areas of research/interest: Dr. Rillahan’s research focuses on applying technology and analytical methods to study fish behavior. This includes collaborating with commercial fisheries, aquaculture, offshore wind, and conservationists to address emerging problems in these fields. Relevant projects have focused on fishing gear design, bycatch reduction, and electronic monitoring in commercial fisheries; the development of candidate species for local aquaculture; the impact of offshore wind on fish and fishers; and the behavior of anadromous fish.

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

Commonwealth Professor
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.

Christopher Ward, PhD

Research Assistant Professor
Department of Estuarine and Ocean Sciences, School for Marine Science & Technology
University of Massachusetts Dartmouth
email: cward8@umassd.edu
phone: 508.910.6327

Areas of research/interest: Dr. Ward’s research in marine microbial ecology investigates microbial community diversity and metabolism and its interplay with primary production, nutrient cycling, and ecosystem dynamics. The research integrates molecular and genomic tools, field-based studies, and culture experiments to resolve biological mechanisms that structure key processes. Primary interests are phytoplankton-microbial interactions, marine polymer biodegradation, harmful algal blooms, and global change stressors.