Marine Biology Program Directory
Marine Biology Program
Frauke Seemann, Ph.D.
Associate Professor and Program CoordinatorOffice: TH 332
Phone: (361) 825-2683
Email: frauke.seemann@tamucc.edu
Keisha Bahr, Ph.D.
Professor & Harte Research Institute ChairOffice: TH 134
Phone: (361) 825-3707
Email: keisha.bahr@tamucc.edu
Website: https://www.bahrlab.com
Coral Reef Ecology, Eco-physiology; Climate Change Ecology; Ocean acidification and Carbonate Chemistry; Reef diversity, distribution, and community level structure and processes; Science Communication.
Loretta Battaglia, Ph.D.
Professor & Director of Center for Coastal StudiesOffice: NRC 3213
Phone: (361) 825-2768
Email: loretta.battaglia@tamucc.edu
Coastal ecosystems; invasive species; wetland plant communities; multivariate statistics
Chris Bird, Ph.D.
Associate Professor of BiologyOffice: TH 234
Phone: (361) 825-6024
Email: chris.bird@tamucc.edu
Website: https://birdlab.tamucc.edu
Molecular Ecology, Evolution, Population Genetics, Marine Biology, Community Ecology, Fisheries Management, Invertebrate Zoology, Biotechnology
Kirk Cammarata, Ph.D.
Associate Professor of BiologyOffice: TH 338
Phone: (361) 825-2468
Email: kirk.cammarata@tamucc.edu
Website: https://faculty.tamucc.edu/cammarat
Physiology/biochemistry/molecular biology of seagrass stress responses to anthropogenic impacts; epiphyte dynamics and interactions with seagrasses
Daniel Coffey, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor of Biology-Fisheries & MaricultureOffice: TH 232
Phone: (361) 825-5883
Email: daniel.coffey@tamucc.edu
Donna Devlin, Ph.D.
Research AssociateOffice: CS 106
Phone: (361) 825-3935
Email: donna.devlin@tamucc.edu
Chris Hollenbeck, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor, Fisheries and MaricultureOffice: TH 140
Phone: (361) 825-6022
Email: christopher.hollenbeck@tamucc.edu
Patrick Larkin, Ph.D.
Associate Professor of ChemistryOffice: CS 203
Phone: (361) 825-3258
Email: patrick.larkin@tamucc.edu
Plant biochemistry and genetics; fate and metabolism of nutrients and toxins, diversity and dispersal, conservation.
Yajuan Lin, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor of Marine EcologyOffice: TH 231
Phone: (361) 825-3657
Email: yajuan.lin@tamucc.edu
Website: https://yajuanlin.github.io/
Biological Oceanography, Microbial Ecology, Marine Biogeochemistry, Climate Change
Candice Lumibao, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor of BiologyOffice: TH 333
Phone: (361) 825-3477
Email: candice.lumibao@tamucc.edu
Website: https://candicelumibaolab.com/
Plant-microbe interactions in coastal marshes, rhizosphere and endosphere microbial ecology, genomics, plant phenotypic and genetic trait variations, effects of climatic and anthropogenic changes, ancient plant DNA
Shawn McCracken, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor of BiologyOffice: TH 142
Phone: (361) 825-3303
Email: shawn.mccracken@tamucc.edu
Website: https://www.mccrackenlab.com
Dr. McCrackens interests lie in the ecological and evolutionary responses to environmental change at community to ecosystem scales, directed at the development of management strategies and policy to preserve landscape wildlife biodiversity.
Paul Montagna, Ph.D.
HRI Chair and ProfessorOffice: HRI 122E
Phone: (361) 825-2040
Email: paul.montagna@tamucc.edu
Coastal ecology with emphasis on watersheds & estuaries; ecosystems with emphasis on water quality & benthos; modeling, statistics, & experimental design; ecoinformatics
Riccardo Mozzachiodi, Ph.D.
Professor of NeuroscienceOffice: TH 335
Phone: (361) 825-3634
Email: riccardo.mozzachiodi@tamucc.edu
Neurobiology; biological basis of learning and memory; behavior
Dara Orbach, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor of BiologyOffice: TH 340
Phone: (361) 825-3217
Email: dara.orbach@tamucc.edu
Website: https://daraorbach.weebly.com
Jennifer Pollack, Ph.D.
Associate Professor of Marine Biology and HRI Chair for Coastal Conservation & RestorationOffice: HRI 210A
Phone: (361) 825-2041
Email: jennifer.pollack@tamucc.edu
Website: https://www.harte.org/research/coastal-conservation-restoration
Field research experience in temperate salt marsh creeks, semi-arid estuaries, and polar regions
David Portnoy, Ph.D.
Professor of Marine BiologyOffice: TH 138
Phone: (361) 825-2859
Email: david.portnoy@tamucc.edu
Website: https://marinegenomicslab.tamucc.edu
Conservation genetics of exploited marine fishes, historical patterns of zoogeography, systematics and evolution of bony fishes and elasmobranchs, patterns of sexual selection, conflict and speciation.
Ed Proffitt, Ph.D.
ProfessorOffice: TH 139
Phone: (361) 825-2358
Email: ed.proffitt@tamucc.edu
Website: https://edproffitt.wixsite.com/coastal-ecology
Ecology of estuarine and marine plants and invertebrates; ecological genetics; experimental design and biometry; applying multivariate statistics to address large-scale problems
Jian Sheng, Ph.D.
Professor of EngineeringOffice: RFEB 313
Phone: (361) 825-3731
Email: jian.sheng@tamucc.edu
Greg Stunz, Ph.D.
Professor of Marine Biology and Endowed Chair for Fisheries and Ocean HealthOffice: HRI 311C
Phone: (361) 825-3254
Email: greg.stunz@tamucc.edu
Marine biology, marine ecology, marine fisheries ecology, fisheries, estuarine ecology, environmental biology
Jeffrey Turner, Ph.D.
Associate Professor of Marine BiologyOffice: TH 240
Phone: (361) 825-6206
Email: jeffrey.turner@tamucc.edu
Website: https://turnerlab.tamucc.edu
Microbial Ecology, Molecular Biology, Population Genetics, Evolution, Genomics, Metagenomics, connections between oceans and human health
Benjamin Walther, Ph.D.
ProfessorOffice: TH 336
Phone: (361) 825-4168
Email: benjamin.walther@tamucc.edu
Website: https://sites.google.com/site/waltherfishlab/
Fish migration ecology; population connectivity; habitat use; food web dynamics; carbonate chemistry
Michael Wetz, Ph.D.
Professor of Marine BiologyOffice: HRI 210B
Phone: (361) 825-2132
Email: michael.wetz@tamucc.edu
Website: https://www.harte.org/research/coastal-ecosystem-processes
Phytoplankton ecology, estuarine and coastal food webs and biogeochemical cycles, effects of climatic and anthropogenic change
Kim Withers, Ph.D.
Associate ProfessorOffice: NRC 3205
Phone: (361) 825-5907
Email: kim.withers@tamucc.edu
Tidal flat ecology; invertebrates & nekton of tidal flats & marshes; shorebird habitat use on tidal flats in Laguna Madre & Corpus Christi Bay; mangrove-associated faunas; seagrass ecology & invertebrate communities; impacts of succession on juvenile fish communities; fisheries resources in Texas & Mexico
Wei Xu, Ph.D.
Associate Professor of Marine Biomedical ScienceOffice: TH 339
Phone: (361) 825-2676
Email: wei.xu@tamucc.edu
Website: https://www.tamucc.edu/science/research/leh/wei-xu.php
Lin Zhang, Ph.D.
Associate Professor of Marine ChemistryOffice: NRC 1109
Phone: (361) 825-2095
Email: lin.zhang@tamucc.edu
Website: http://zhanglab.tamucc.edu
Compound/Position Specific Carbon and Nitrogen Isotopic Analysis in Amino Acids and Application in Oceanography and Ecology. Stable Isotope Biogeochemistry of Greenhouse Gases in Alaskan Peatlands.