Election of new officers, President-Elect and Secretary-Treasurer, will be held this summer. The Executive Committee serves as the nominating committee and nomination by the general membership will extend through June 30, 2009.  Information about each candidate will be circulated by July 31, 2009 along with a link to SurveyMonkey via the GERS listserve in order to provide a secret ballot and tallied results.  The deadline for receipt of ballots is August 31, 2009.  Please consider running for an office or nominating a colleague!

Officers

Email: mpoirrie@uno.edu

Michael A. Poirrier joined the faculty of the Department of Biological Sciences at the University of New Orleans after finishing a Ph.D. in Zoology in 1969.  He chaired the Department of Biological Sciences for seven years and is currently an Emeritus Professor and Director of the Estuarine Research Laboratory at UNO.  Dr. Poirrier participated in the establishment of the Lake Pontchartrain Basin Foundation, the Louisiana Universities Marine Consortium, and he is a charter member of the Gulf Estuarine Research Society.  He helped organize ERF and GERS meetings in the past and authored articles in Estuaries and Coasts.  His current research focus is on restoration ecology in the Lake Pontchartrain Basin.  It includes Chandeleur Island seagrasses; SAV and marsh restoration; artificial fishing reefs, effects of saltwater intrusions and associated hypoxia on Lake Pontchartrain benthic community structure, and the benefits of restoring clam populations.  His recent work has been funded by NOAA, EPA, the National Park Service and the Lake Pontchartrain Basin Foundation. He recently received the Coalition to Restore Coastal Louisiana’s Career Achievement Award.

Email: ed.buskey@mail.utexas.edu

Ed Buskey is a professor in the Department of Marine Science at the University of Texas at Austin and has been a faculty member and researcher at the Marine Science Institute in Port Aransas since 1986.

His main research interests focus on plankton ecology. As Research Coordinator for the Mission Aransas National Estuarine Research Reserve, Dr. Buskey has been involved in setting up long-term environmental monitoring stations within the reserve so that the impacts of climate change and sea level rise on estuarine community structure and function can be studied. His current sea-going oceanographic research include studies of the effects of moderate hypoxia on the reproduction of marine copepods in the Gulf of Mexico and the impacts of climate change on the planktonic food web of the Arabian Sea.  Dr. Buskey also studies the role of zooplankton grazers in harmful algal bloom dynamics, such as the “red tide” dinoflagellate blooms of Karenia brevis that impact the Gulf of Mexico and the “brown tide” blooms of Aureoumbra lagunensis that affect the Laguna Madre of South Texas. Other research interests include the behavioral ecology of marine zooplankton, and how sensory perception mediates behavioral adaptations for locating food resources, avoiding predators and finding mates.

More information can be found on his home page: http://www.utmsi.utexas.edu/people/faculty/edward-j-buskey/home-page.html

Email: suraida.nanez-james@noaa.gov

Suraida Nañez-James is currently a Southern Regional Education Board (SREB) Doctoral Fellow at the University of Louisiana at Lafayette.  She works at the NOAA Fisheries SEFC/Estuarine Habitats and Coastal Fisheries Center where she researches the implications of freshwater diversions on benthic infaunal communities in Louisiana.

Suraida received her B.S. in Marine Fisheries from Texas A&M University at Galveston while working for the NOAA Fisheries Laboratory in Galveston.  In 2006, she received her Masters in Biology from Texas A&M University-Corpus Christi where she focused her studies on identifying and characterizing nursery habitats for juvenile southern flounder in Texas bays.  After receiving her M.S., she worked for the Harte Research Institute from 2006-2008 compiling an invasive species database for Texas marine species and working on science education initiatives, such as founding the Laguna Outreach Project. Other research interests include invertebrate and fish ecology, marine policy, and science education.