Experts: Environment

Bourassa’s expertise is in the transfer of energy and momentum between the ocean and the atmosphere, surface water waves and the identification of tropical disturbances, and possible precursors to tropical cyclones. Recent work has involved remotely sensed estimates of the energy released in storms, as water vapor is converted to precipitation.

Chanton is an acclaimed climate scientist who has done extensive work examining the causes of increased methane gas in the atmosphere.  He also has investigated the effects of the BP oil spill, including how methane-derived carbon from the spill entered the food web and how much sank to the ocean floor and mixed with sediment.

Dukhovskoy’s expertise focuses on modeling ocean dynamics, storm surges, air-sea interaction, waves and tides.

Elsner is an expert on climate and weather, and in developing statistical models for predicting severe weather activity such as hurricanes and tornadoes. He is a widely sought out by reporters during hurricane season to provide context to stories about large tropical storms. He has authored more than 150 research articles and three books.

Fuentes is a marine conservation biologist, with expertise in conservation planning, natural resource management, and on anthropogenic and climate change impacts on marine mega-fauna, especially marine turtles. She wrote about the effect of microplastics on the environment for The Conversation, and her research has been featured in The Miami Herald, National Geographic, Fox News and more.

Grubbs is an expert in marine biology, fish ecology and fisheries science, with particular expertise in the biology of coastal and deep sea sharks and their relatives.

Hart’s research focuses on hurricane predictability, both track and intensity; the role of hurricanes in climate; and the impact of hurricanes on the higher latitudes.

Isaac is an expert on the national economy as it relates to energy policy and government regulation.

Misra studies climate variability and predictability. He and his colleagues at the Center for Ocean-Atmospheric Prediction Studies developed a new metric called Track Integrated Kinetic Energy (TIKE) to measure seasonal Atlantic tropical cyclone activity. The metric focuses on the size of storms in addition to the duration and intensity, a measure that may prove important when considering a hurricane’s potential for death and destruction. He also is developing novel modeling projection strategies specifically aimed at developing tropical storm forecasts for Florida.

Ryan specializes in environmental governance and environmental, water, property and land use law. She is a prolific legal scholar who presents widely in the United States, Europe and Asia, and she appears regularly in news media. A former U.S. Forest Service ranger, she was a Fellow at the Harvard Negotiation Research Project, a Fulbright Scholar in China, and a Research Fellow at the Rachel Carson Center in Munich.

Robert Spencer is a professor of oceanography at Florida State University. He travels around the world conducting research on our natural resources to gauge the effects of climate change. Spencer is an expert on climate change, the carbon cycle, dissolved organic matter, and the environments of the Arctic and the tropics.

Tull is an expert in structural geology (the architecture of the earth’s faults), global tectonics and fault systems.

Wiseman is an expert on the role of regulation in protecting the character of living spaces and environmental quality, including regulations surrounding fracking, oil and gas and energy.