PRINCESS ANNE, MD-(August 5, 2021)-Ben Grumbles, Maryland’s Secretary of the Environment, recently announced that the University of Maryland Eastern Shore’s director of the NOAA Living Marine Resources Cooperative Science Center, Dr. Paulinus Chigbu, has been appointed to the Maryland Commission on Climate Change. Chigbu will serve on one of its working groups, the Science and Technology Working Group.
In the appointment letter, Grumbles wrote that Chigbu’s “long history of running the LMRCSC program, impressive education and experiences in fisheries and zooplankton ecology and climatic factors in water quality” make him instrumental to the commission as they “analyze possible solutions to complicated issues surrounding climate change.”
Chigbu, a University System of Maryland Wilson H. Elkins Professor of Marine Science at UMES, will provide the chair of the working group, Dr. Peter Goodwin, and members with the science to base their recommendation on each year.
“This appointment is true testament of the value Dr. Chigbu brings to the state of Maryland. I know he will do a wonderful job to address this very important topic,” said Dr. Moses T. Kairo, dean, UMES’ School of Agricultural and Natural Sciences.
In addition to his 15-year post as director of the NOAA LMRCSC, Chigbu is also director of the National Science Foundation’s CREST Center for the Integrated Study of Coastal Ecosystem Processes and Dynamics in the Mid-Atlantic Region, the Research Experience for Undergraduates in Marine Science and the Geoscience Bridge Program. He also is the associate dean for research, development and graduate education at UMES.
“The mission of the working group is to provide the Maryland Climate Change Commission current information on the science of climate change, which is important for resilience planning,” Chigbu said. “I am pleased and honored to be appointed to join the group and look forward to contributing to the success of that endeavor.”
Chigbu holds a doctorate in fisheries from the University of Washington School of Fisheries in Seattle and master’s and bachelor’s degrees in zoology (hydrobiology) from the University of Benin, Nigeria.
Gail Stephens, agricultural communications and media associate, University of Maryland Eastern Shore, School of Agricultural and Natural Sciences, gcstephens@umes.edu., 410-621-3850.
Photo by Todd Dudek, agricultural communications and media associate, University of Maryland Eastern Shore, School of Agricultural and Natural Sciences, tdudek@umes.edu.
