UGAMI page

The University of Georgia

Marine Institute

Sapelo Island, Georgia 31327 USA

Contact information:

Office Phone: 1-912-485-2221

Office FAX: 1-912-485-2133

http://www.uga.edu/ugami

The Marine Institute has served as a field research laboratory for estuarine scientists from the University of Georgia and around the world since it was established in 1953. It is the longest continuously-operating organized institution in the history of Sapelo Island. It is a research center under the Office of the Vice-President for Research and became part of the School of Marine Programs when that unit was established in 1991. Click here for a brief history of the Marine Institute within a context of the island's history.

Faculty and Staff

Since it was founded, The Marine Institute has been home to a small but dedicated resident faculty employed by the University of Georgia and supported by a combination of state-appropriations, private funding and outside competitive research grants. The size of the faculty has varied over the years from a maximum of ten full-time professional research scientists to the current minimum of two. In addition, several temporary (1-3 years) postdoctoral positions have been supported at the laboratory in the past, as well as visiting scientists and graduate students from various departments within and outside the University of Georgia. A number of professional technicians are employed mostly with funding generated from competitive grants obtained by the researchers operating out of the facility. Other support staff ably handle the myriad administrative, clerical and maintenance requirements of the field station.

Director

William "Bill" L. Miller

UGAMI Director, Assoc. Director School of Marine Programs, Ph.D. 1990, Chemical Oceanography, University of Rhode Island. Marine Photochemistry. bmiller@uga.edu

Resident Faculty

Ronald T. Kneib

Senior Research Scientist. PhD 1980, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Population and community dynamics of estuarine fishes and invertebrates; life histories and autecology; application of field experimentation to address ecological problems in estuaries; landscape structure and functional ecology of tidal wetlands. rtkneib@uga.edu

Steven Y. Newell

Senior Research Scientist & Acting Director. PhD 1974, Rosenstiel School of Marine and Atmospheric Science. Microbes of coastal-marine ecosystems; ecology of eukaryotic-mycelial microbial decomposers in saltmarsh and mangrove ecosystems; interactions among eukaryotic mycelial microbes, photosynthetic microbes, prokaryotic saprotrophs, and microbivorous invertebrates. newell@uga.edu

Visiting Scientists

Currently, there are no visiting scientists in residence. Click here to learn more about recent research conducted by visiting scientists at the Marine Institute.

Graduate Students

Brian K. Dresser

MS degree candidate in the UGA Ecology Program (expected graduation May 2003), Thesis project: Habitat and movement of subadult red drum (Sciaenops ocellatus) within a salt marsh-estuarine system, with funding from the National Science Foundation. Advisor: Dr. R.T. Kneib. bkd@uga.edu

Technicians

Kenneth T. Helm

Research Technician, LPN. khelm@darientel.net Project: Georgia Coastal Ecosystems Long-term Ecological Research. Supervising P.I.: S. P. Pennings (University of Houston)

Jennifer P. Kneib

Part-time Research Technician II, MA in Biology 1994, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. rjk@darientel.net Project: Interactions among ecology, population biology and gene expression, funding from the National Science Foundation. Supervising P.I.: R. T. Kneib

Timothy Repicky

Research Technician I, BA in Biology 2003, State University of New York, Potsdam, NY. timothyrepicky@yahoo.com Project: Functional Genomics: Interactions among ecology, population biology and gene expression, funding from the National Science Foundation. Supervising P.I.: R. T. Kneib