Dr. Joseph T. Bennett

(Ph.D. University of Washington) conducts research in the application of analytical chemistry to solutions of environmental problems. He is currently involved in monitoring the sanitary quality of surf zone waters of the Grand Strand and is also conducting research on the impact of pollution on the water quality of local aquatic and marine environments. jbennett@coastal.edu

Dr. Erin Burge

(Ph.D. College of William and Mary, Virginia Institute of Marine Science) has research interests which include environmental immunology, molecular physiology, and molecular biology of marine invertebrates and fishes. I am developing a research program that applies molecular and cellular techniques to field-oriented problems in an ecological context. I am specifically interested in hypotheses concerning gene expression in disease pathogenesis, host resistance, host/pathogen interactions, and environmental influences on gene expression. I prefer framing research questions and interpreting results in the context of the life history of the organisms being studied. eburge@coastal.edu

Dr. Steve Bush

(Ph.D. University of Massachusetts-Amherst) is a geneticist who studies the population genetics of plants.
bush@coastal.edu

Dr. Dave Evans

Dr. David W. Evans (Ph.D., Lousiana State University) has research interests in the isolation and identification of organic molecules from a wide variety of sources ranging from plants to organisms.  Quantification of these molecules also falls under his purview.
devans@coastal.edu

Dr. Michael Ferguson

(Ph.D., Kansas State University) has research interests in the molecular ecology and evolution of type III effector proteins produced by the opportunistic pathogen Pseudomonas aeruginosa. He is mainly interested in how these proteins evolved as P. aeruginosa evolved from a soil organism to a human pathogen.
ferguson@coastal.edu

Dr. Paul Gayes

(Ph.D., Marine Sciences Research Center-SUNY Stony Brook), Director of the Center for Marine and Wetland Studies, is actively involved in: coastal geologic and geophysical framework studies, study of coastal environmental change, beach erosion and processes, behavior of nourished beaches and development of geophysical (acoustic) habitat mapping methods.
ptgayes@coastal.edu
Web page and recent activities: www.coastal.edu/cmws

Dr. Craig Gilman

(Ph.D. University of Rhode Island) is involved in research utilizing satellite oceanography to study ocean circulation and the role the ocean plays in Earth’s climate.
gilman@coastal.edu

Dr. Kevin Godwin

(Ph.D. SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry) is a wetland/landscape ecologist. His research focuses in wetland ecology/landscape ecology/conservation biology.
ksgodwin@coastal.edu

Dr. Jane L. Guentzel

(Ph.D. in Chemical Oceanography Florida State University) focuses her research on the biogeochemistry of mercury and other trace elements in the atmosphere and in aquatic systems.
jguentze@coastal.edu

Dr. Chris Hill

(Ph.D. University of Washington) links field and laboratory research to answer questions about population differentiation and mating systems in birds, especially in marsh-nesting sparrows. He is also interested at how landscape scale factors affect the distribution of marsh nesting birds. chill@coastal.edu
Web page: http://kingfish.coastal.edu/biology/faculty/chill.htm

Dr. Louis Keiner

(Ph.D., University of Delaware) His research interests lie in the areas of satellite remote sensing and coastal ocean dynamics. He is currently involved in projects dealing with the analysis of oceanic chlorophyll concentrations and sea surface temperatures off the South Carolina coast, and the current dynamics of coastal inlets. Dr. Keiner's office is located in University Hall Room 207 and his office phone number is 843-349-2226. lkeiner@kingfish.coastal.edu

Dr. John Hutchens

(Ph.D. University of Georgia) is an aquatic ecologist interested in the structure and function of stream and wetland ecosystems. His research focuses on understanding how human activity influences organisms and ecosystem processes in streams, freshwater wetlands, and salt marshes.
jjhutche@coastal.edu
Webpage: http://ww2.coastal.edu/jjhutche/

Dr. Eric Koepfler

(Ph.D. College of William and Mary) has a broad range of interests in marine ecology. His training is as a microbial ecologist where he examines bacterial communities. These communities interact with algae, higher plants, and benthic invertebrates. Bacterial community structure and function are also influenced by human “anthropogenic” factors associated with coastal development, and global climate change. Dr. Koepfler studies these types of topics in the water column and in intertidal marsh habitats. Dr. Koepfler’s other research focus involves biophysics associated with temperature and salinity effects on microbes, plants, and sea turtle nests.
H is current research focused on the complex interaction of estuarine watershed landscape, human development, meteorological and climatologic processes, microbial communities and water quality.
eric@coastal.edu

Dr. Brent L. Lewis

(Ph.D. in Chemical Oceanography from Florida State University) is a marine and environmental chemist, with expertise in trace analysis and the biogeochemical cycling of heavy metals in the water column and sediments. His research interests include estuarine and coastal transport of metals, metal cycling in sub-oxic/anoxic environments and the application of microelectrode technology for in situ measurements

Dr. Susan Libes

(Ph.D. Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution/Massachusetts Institute of Technology Joint Program in Oceanography and Ocean Engineering) is an environmental and marine chemist. Her research focuses on eutrophication and hypoxia in blackwater rivers and coastal marine waters. She is the director of the Waccamaw Watershed Academy which supports research, public service and curricular activities on watershed science and policy. susan@coastal.edu

Dr. James O. Luken

(Ph.D. Duke University) is a plant ecologist. His research currently focuses on the population biology and physiological ecology of rare carnivorous plants growing on the edges of Carolina Bays. He is also interested in plant invasions of wetlands and factors that contribute to these invasions.
joluken@coastal.edu

Var Limpasuvan

(Ph.D. University of Washington, Joint Institute for the Study of Atmosphere and Ocean) is an atmospheric physicist. He is actively involved in the study of climate dynamics related to natural variability and atmospheric waves (using numerical simulations and satellite observations) due to severe storms, jet instability, and terrain undulations. var@coastal.edu. Web page on recent activities: http://kingfish.coastal.edu/physics/var/

Caption: Simulated temperature perturbations (or waves) due to flow over the coast of Greenland (shaded). The prevailing air flow is nearly eastward (between the green contours, in a counter-clockwise direction). These waves may possibly trigger ice clouds that are involved in the destruction of precious stratospheric ozone. (Limpasuvan’s research)

Dr. Keith Walters

(Ph.D.,University of South Florida) is a marine ecologist with wide-ranging research interests that include deep-sea biology, marine snow dynamics, salt marsh plant-animal interactions, micro crustacean population biology, and marine habitat restoration. For more information check out http://ww2.coastal.edu/kwalt. kwalt@coastal.edu

Dr. Ansley Wren

(Ph.D., North Carolina State) is a physical oceanographer. Her research focuses on hydrodynamics and sediment transport in coastal regions including continental shelves, estuaries, inlets, and marshes. Her research considers interactions between coastal oceanography, meteorology, bottom boundary layer hydrodynamics and small-scale stratigraphy. She is actively involved in field investigations that are being conducted in the coastal waters off of North and South Carolina as part of a coastal ocean-observing program in the southeastern region of the U.S.

Dr. Eric Wright

(Ph.D. in Marine Science from the University of South Florida) is a coastal geologist. His primary research interests are in coastal geomorphology and stratigraphy, coastal evolution and late Quaternary studies.
ewright@coastal.edu

Dr. Robert Young

(Ph.D. in Oceanography University of Rhode Island) conducts research on the ecology and behavior of bottlenose dolphins and fish, with an emphasis on the role of nekton in controlling community structure and processes in salt marshes, bays, and near-coastal habitats.
ryoung@coastal.edu