Study Committee Biographical Information
Jerry Schubel (Chair) is President and Chief Executive Officer of the New England Aquarium. He received a B.S. in physics and mathematics from Alma College, an M.A.T. from Harvard University, a Ph.D. in oceanography from Johns Hopkins University, and an honorary D.Sc. in 1997 from the Massachusetts Maritime Academy. He served for 20 years as Dean and Director of the State University of New York at Stony Brook’s Marine Sciences Research Center. His primary research interests include estuarine and shallow-water sedimentation, suspended sediment transport, interactions of sediment and organisms, and marine geophysics. Dr. Schubel has written numerous articles and papers exploring sedimentation and general marine science issues. He served from 1992 to 1994 as chair of the Marine Board, National Research Council.
Henry J. Bokuniewicz is a Professor at the Marine Sciences Research Center of the State University of New York at Stony Brook. He received a B.A. from the University of Illinois and an M. Phil. and a Ph.D. from Yale University. His current research focuses on the effects of resuspension on containment availability for dredged material, benthic studies associated with containment, prediction of tidal circulation and hydrodynamics, and criteria for the selection of placement sites for dredged material. He has authored or coauthored numerous papers on sediment transport and deposition, sediment mass balance, and effects of storm and tidal energy.
Peter F. Bontadelli, Jr., is founder and President of PFB Associates, an environmental and maritime consulting firm. He graduated from the University of California, Davis, with a B.A. in political science. From November 1987 to January 1992, he was Director of the California Department of Fish and Game, where he was designated as lead for the governor in oil spill prevention and response activities for California’s marine waters. Prior to his responsibilities as Director, he served for 22 months as Chief Deputy Director of the Department and was responsible for overall department operations. As a Special Assistant to the Fish and Game Director from June 1984 to January 1986, he was responsible for legislation, coordination of special task forces, and the department’s budget. Mr. Bontadelli has also served as a member of the U.S. Coast Guard’s Negotiated Rulemaking Committee and a member of the National Research Council panel that conducted an implementation review of the Oil Pollution Act of 1990 (Section 4115). He is currently a member of the Marine Board.
Robert J. Diaz is a Professor of Biological Sciences at the School of Marine Science, Virginia Institute of Marine Science. He received a B.A. in biology and chemistry from La Salle College and an M.S. and a Ph.D. in marine science from the University of Virginia. His areas of expertise include marine benthos, marsh ecology, and salt marsh benthos. Recent research projects have involved a deep-sea assessment of dredged material, a benthic analysis of the Eastern Shore, and a long-term benthic monitoring study conducted on behalf of the Virginia Department of Environmental Quality. Dr. Diaz has coauthored a book titled In Situ Measurement of Organism-Sediment Interaction: Rates of Burrow Formation/Abandonment and Sediment Oxidation/Reduction. He has also written numerous articles and papers covering various facets of benthic ecology and has served as an adviser to state agencies and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Waterways Experiment Station, regarding channel dredging and open-water disposal of dredged material.
Marcelo H. Garcia is an Associate Professor in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at the University of Illinois—Champaign and Director of the Ven Te Chow Hydrosystems Laboratory at the University of Illinois. He received a Dipl. Ingeniero in water resources from the Universidad Nacional del Litoral, Argentina, and an M.S. and a Ph.D. in civil engineering from the University of Minnesota. His two primary areas of research are sediment transport (e.g., particle-turbulence interaction, sediment erosion and resuspension by unsteady flows, turbidity currents, particle and pollutant transport and transformation) and environmental hydrodynamics (e.g., turbulence effects on aquatic life, vegetation-flow interaction, density currents, and boundary-layer flows in-
volving turbulence-driven mass transfer at air-water and sediment-water interfaces). Dr. Garcia recently completed a book titled Hydrodynamics and Sediment Transport and is the author of numerous articles and papers. He is a frequent lecturer around the world and is an Associate Editor of the Journal of Water Resources Research (American Geophysical Union) and the Journal of Hydraulic Engineering in Mexico (Mexican Institute of Water Technology).
Ram K. Mohan is Vice President at Blasland, Bouck, & Lee; he was Vice President for Gahagan & Bryant Associates, Inc., when the study commenced. He received a B.S. in naval architecture from the Cochin University of Science and Technology, India; an M.S. in ocean (marine geotechnical) engineering from the University of Rhode Island; a Ph.D. in ocean (coastal and dredging) engineering from Texas A&M University; and a P.E. in civil engineering from the University of Maryland. He has more than 11 years of experience in the areas of dredging systems and dredged material disposal, river and channel hydraulics, sediment transport modeling, and environmental dredging technologies. Dr. Mohan is active in professional societies and serves as Editor-in-Chief of the Western Dredging Association’s Journal of Dredging Engineering, Editorial Review Board member for the Journal of Marine Environmental Engineering, and Editorial Review Board member for the Journal of Hydraulic Research. He has authored more than 80 papers in civil, coastal, hydraulic, and dredging engineering. He is also a member of the National Research Council’s Ocean Studies Board.
Denise J. Reed is a Professor in the Department of Geology and Geophysics at the University of New Orleans. Her research interests include coastal marsh response to sea-level rise, the contributions of fine sediments and organic material to marsh soil development, and how these are affected by human alterations to marsh hydrology. She has worked on coastal issues in north-west Europe, southern Chile and the Atlantic, and the Pacific and Gulf coasts of the United States; she has published her results in numerous papers and reports. She has been involved in restoration planning in both Louisiana and California and in the scientific evaluation of the results of marsh restoration projects. Dr. Reed serves on the editorial boards of the Journal of Coastal Research and Wetland Ecology and Management. She has served on numerous boards and panels concerning the effects of human alterations on coastal environments and the role of science in guiding ecosystem restoration. She received her Ph.D. from the University of Cambridge, U.K., and has worked in coastal Louisiana since 1986.
Susan-Marie Stedman has been a Fishery Biologist and Team Leader for the National Marine Fisheries Service, Office of Habitat Conservation, since 1993.
In this capacity, she leads the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s (NOAA) fisheries national habitat conservation efforts; her responsibilities include policy development, outreach, and review and comment on the Army Corps of Engineers’ Clean Water Act, Section 404, Program. She received a B.S. in marine science from Southampton College and an M.S. in coastal geology from the University of Delaware. Ms. Stedman assists the Fishery Management Councils in implementing the essential fish habitat (EFH) provisions of the Magnuson—Stevens Act and was the principal author of NOAA’s fisheries guidance on conducting EFH consultations. She is currently editing a joint publication with the U.S. Geological Service on the dependence of fish on wetlands and is developing a NOAA fisheries policy on conservation of submerged aquatic vegetation as fish habitat.
Nils E. Stolpe is Director of Communications and an Interim Board Member for the Garden State Seafood Association. He received a B.S. in environmental science from Rutgers University. He is also the publisher of FishNet USA, a monthly information sheet addressing fisheries-related topics distributed to more than 1,500 subscribers. From 1995 to 1999 he served as Executive Director of the New Jersey Seafood Harvesters Association and from 1987 to 1993 as Executive Director of the New Jersey Commercial Fisherman’s Association.
John B. Torgan is the Narragansett Bay Keeper with Save the Bay in Providence, Rhode Island. He holds a B.S. in environmental studies and biology from Union College. He leads Save the Bay’s program to protect the environmental integrity of the bay and its tributaries through sampling, research, and education. He develops outreach activities and other communication programs to bring problems to the attention of the public. He has also performed research on wildlife habitats in the region and has provided testimony on ecological issues. Prior to holding his current position, he conducted ecological research and field studies in New York and Michigan as well as fishery studies in rivers near hydroelectric dams.
Thomas H. Wakeman III is Dredging Program Manager for the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, where he is responsible for the planning, development, and management of a $20 million annual operating and capital dredging program. He received a B.A. in biology from California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo, and an M.A. in marine biology from San Francisco State University, and he has completed doctoral coursework in engineering at the University of California, Berkeley—Davis. Previously he served as a Special Projects Manager for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, San Francisco District. In this position, he was responsible for the project management and coor-
dination of a regional $17 million federal-state plan for dredging and disposal management, an annual $25 million federal maintenance dredging program, and the $130 million John Baldwin navigation channel deepening project. He was recently elected Cochair of the Dredged Material Management Integration Work Group, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency—U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Regional Dredging Team. He is a member of the American Society of Civil Engineers, the International Navigation Association, and the Western Dredging Association and is an individual affiliate of the Transportation Research Board.
Michael P. Weinstein is President—CEO of the New Jersey Marine Sciences Consortium and Director of the New Jersey Sea Grant College Program. He also serves as a Visiting Professor for the Institute of Marine and Coastal Sciences, Rutgers University. He received a B.A. in biology from Hofstra University, an M.S. in zoology from Rutgers University, and a Ph.D. in marine and environmental science from Florida State University. His primary research interests include coastal ecology, early-life history, secondary production, restoration ecology, and ecological engineering. He is the principal author of more than 200 reports and presentations to state and federal agencies and the private sector and has authored or coauthored eight books pertaining to ichthyology.
