Associate Professor, Marine Science
Savannah State University
Phone: (912) 358-4438 | Email: curranc@savannahstate.edu | Fax: (912) 358 4941
- Coordinator of Student Travel Awards – Southeastern Estuarine Research Society (1998-present)
- Member – ASLO (2004-present)
- Member – (2003-present)
- Member – Research Federation (2001-present).
Education
Massachusetts Institute of Technology/Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution
Ph.D., Biological Oceanography
Victoria University of Wellington in New Zealand
B.S., Zoology
Research Interests
- Flatfish ecology
- Prevalence of parasitism and behavioral changes associated with isopod parasites on grass shrimp
- The effect of ray feeding pits on meiofauna
- Life history of cobia
- Bycatch in crab traps
- Designing K-12 activities related to marsh ecology.
Selected Publications
Biosketch
Dr. Mary Carla Curran is an Associate Professor in the Marine Science Program at Savannah State University whose area of expertise is in fish biology and marsh ecology. However, her interests span these areas as well as those involving the impact of human activities (particularly construction and contaminants) on estuaries, invertebrates, and marine education. Curran began her undergraduate training in the Marine Science program at University of South Carolina where she graduated Magna Cum Laude. She then earned a B.S. Honors degree in Zoology as a Fulbright Scholar at Victoria University of Wellington in New Zealand. Her doctoral work in Biological Oceanography was completed at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology/Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution. She has held two postdoctoral positions, one at Rutgers University with Dr. Kenneth W. Able and another supported by the National Science Foundation and NATO at the Stazione Zoologica di Napoli in Italy with Dr. Flegrea Bentivegna.
Before joining the faculty at SSU, Dr. Curran taught as an Assistant Professor at the University of South Carolina at Beaufort. Her current projects are focused mainly in estuarine habitats in coastal Georgia and South Carolina and include the use of estuaries by flatfishes, behavior and movement patterns of blackcheek tonguefish and contaminant loading in flounder in coastal Georgia. Her graduate students have conducted research related to her primary interest in flatfish ecology, but also a wide-array of other topics: prevalence of parasitism and behavioral changes associated with isopod parasites on grass shrimp, the effect of ray feeding pits on meiofauna, life history of cobia, bycatch in crab traps, and designing K-12 activities related to marsh ecology. She is actively involved in the Southeastern Estuarine Research Society (1998-present) as Coordinator of Student Travel Awards and is also a member of ASLO (2004-present), SETAC (2003-present), and the Estuarine Research Federation (2001-present).
