MCBI's Board

James T. Carlton, Ph.D., Professor of Marine Sciences and Director of the Maritime Studies Program, Williams College-Mystic Seaport, Mystic CT. An expert on marine mollusks, he is recognized as the world's leading authority on introductions of marine alien species and modern extinctions of marine invertebrates. He has studied the spread of introduced species of marine invertebrates in countries worldwide and documented the first extinction of a marine invertebrate in modern times. Among his many definitive publications is Understanding Marine Biodiversity: A Research Agenda for the Nation (National Academy of Sciences 1995). He is a Pew Fellow in Marine Conservation.

Michael E. Soulé, Ph.D., Research Professor in the Environmental Studies Department at University of California-Santa Cruz, is the father of conservation biology. He organized the first and second Conferences on Conservation Biology in 1978 and 1985, was SCB's first President, is an AAAS Fellow and President of the Board of The Wildlands Project. One of the world's leading experts on population biology and island biogeography theory, he is author or editor of seminal books including Conservation Biology: An Evolutionary-Ecological Synthesis (1980), Conservation and Evolution (1981), Viable Populations for Conservation (1987) and Research Priorities for Conservation Biology (1989).

Gary S. Fields, D.P.M., Chief Executive Officer of West Georgia Podiatry Associates, Carrollton GA. A board-certified podiatric surgeon specializing on the foot problems of diabetics, his first love was marine biology. As a Long Island University student, he began scuba diving in the 1960s in New York for a research project on chemoreception and feeding behavior of the hermit crab Pagurus longicarpus, and has continued fish-watching in the waters of Hawaii, Florida, Aruba, Curaçao, Bonaire and Mexico. He has been a financial supporter of environmental organizations for three decades.

Irene R. Norse, B.S., Office Manager of Bellevue Law Center in Bellevue, WA. Ms. Norse has provided pro-bono counsel and assistance with insurers and other vendors to MCBI since its conception. After earning her degree in Education from Ohio State University, she worked as an teacher and as a legal secretary in Ohio, Tennessee and Washington. She has snorkeled on coral reefs in Australia, Hawaii and the Bahamas, explored the rocky intertidal zone in Washington's San Juan Islands and Alaska's Baranof Island, and participated in the Religion, Science and Environment Symposium: The Black Sea in Crisis.

Add Alison Rieser and John Twiss

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