Coastal & Marine System Science Program in the College of Science

Faculty in the Coastal & Marine System Science Program
Advisors for the College

Coastal & Marine System Science Program

Ingo Pecher, Ph.D.

Professor and Program Coordinator

Office: NRC 2515
Phone: (361) 825-4141
Email: ingo.pecher@tamucc.edu

Geophysical studies of seafloor processes. Fluid expulsion, cold seeps, gas hydrates, shallow gas, geohazards, seafloor sedimentation and erosion. Analysis of seismic, echosounder, multibeam and sidescan sonar data. Geophysical well logs. Marine heat flow. Integration of geochemical, sedimentological and geophysical data.

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Faculty in the Coastal & Marine System Science Program

Hussain Abdulla, Ph.D.

Professor of Chemistry

Office: CS 211
Phone: (361) 825-6050
Email: hussain.abdulla@tamucc.edu
Website: https://www.habdullagroup.com

Abdulla's Organic Biogeochemistry research laboratory specializes in aquatic environmental metabolomics, studying the fluxes, fate, and transformation of natural dissolved organic matter (DOM). The research group focuses on understanding the fate and transformation of natural DOM and organic pollutants and investigating how different aquatic species tolerate environmental stresses using environmental metabolomics approaches. Additionally, the lab is dedicated to developing advanced analytical methods for the sensitive and robust quantification of metabolites.

Keisha Bahr, Ph.D.

Professor & Harte Research Institute Chair

Office: HRI 122E
Phone: (361) 825-3707
Email: keisha.bahr@tamucc.edu
Website: https://www.bahrlab.com

Coral Reef Ecology, Eco-physiology; Climate Change Ecology; Ocean acidification and Carbonate Chemistry; Reef diversity, distribution, and community level structure and processes; Science Communication.

Loretta Battaglia, Ph.D.

Professor & Director of Center for Coastal Studies

Office: NRC 3213
Phone: (361) 825-2768
Email: loretta.battaglia@tamucc.edu

Coastal ecosystems; invasive species; wetland plant communities; multivariate statistics

Mark Besonen, Ph.D.

Associate Research Scientist

Office: HRI 215B
Phone: (361) 825-2043
Email: mark.besonen@tamucc.edu

Chris Bird, Ph.D.

Associate Professor of Biology

Office: TH 234
Phone: (361) 825-6024
Email: chris.bird@tamucc.edu
Website: https://birdlab.tamucc.edu

Molecular Ecology, Evolution, Population Genetics, Marine Biology, Community Ecology, Fisheries Management, Invertebrate Zoology, Biotechnology

Darek Bogucki, Ph.D.

Associate Professor

Office: CS 251
Phone: (361) 825-2836
Email: darek.bogucki@tamucc.edu
Website: https://faculty.tamucc.edu/dbogucki

Small scale physical processes in the coastal ocean, including remote sensing, numerical methods in fluid dynamics, biological-physical interactions, sensors, and LIDAR

Tianxing Chu, Ph.D.

Associate Professor

Office: NRC 3406
Phone: (361) 825-2685
Email: tianxing.chu@tamucc.edu
Website: https://mantisresearch.org/faculty

Knowledge discovery with emergent remote sensing and geospatial techniques applied to real-world concerns such as modeling sea-level change and land deformation

Richard Coffin, Ph.D.

Professor

Office: NRC 3500
Phone: (361) 825-2814
Email: richard.coffin@tamucc.edu
Website: http://icl.tamucc.edu

Carbon isotope geochemistry to study biogeochemical cycles in the coastal ocean and estuaries.

Geret DePiper, Ph.D.

HRI Endowed Chair & Professor of Resource Economics

Phone: (361) 825-4529
Email: geret.depiper@tamucc.edu

Donna Devlin, Ph.D.

Research Associate

Office: CS 106
Phone: (361) 825-3935
Email: donna.devlin@tamucc.edu

Joseph David Felix, Ph.D.

Research Associate

Office: NRC 3508
Phone: (361) 825-4180
Email: joseph.felix@tamucc.edu
Website: http://felixlab.tamucc.edu

Stable isotope biogeochemistry; Transport, fate, and air-sea-land exchange processes of volatile organic compounds and reactive nitrogen; Bulk and compound-specific stable isotope analysis method development

Dale Gawlik, Ph.D.

HRI Endowed Chair for Conservation and Biodiversity

Office: HRI 314A
Phone: (361) 825-2045
Email: dale.gawlik@tamucc.edu
Website: https://www.harte.org/research/conservation-biodiversity

Research interests: waterbird ecology and conservation, wetland and intertidal ecosystems, restoration ecology, and the use of birds in aquatic ecosystem management.

James Gibeaut, Ph.D.

Endowed Associate Research Professor

Office: HRI 215A
Phone: (361) 825-2060
Email: james.gibeaut@tamucc.edu
Website: https://www.harteresearch.org/research/geospatial-sciences

Coastal geology using topographic Lidar, remote sensing, GIS, and field surveys to measure and understand coastal change.

Jose Guardiola, Ph.D.

Professor of Statistics

Office: CI 309
Phone: (361) 825-5544
Email: jose.guardiola@tamucc.edu

Circular Statistics, Bayesian analysis and Spatial Statistics.

Applied research with colleagues on Medicine, Economics and Marine Research.

Nasrin Hooshmand, Ph.D.

Assistant Professor of Chemistry

Office: CS 250
Phone: (361) 825-2862
Email: nasrin.hooshmand@tamucc.edu
Website: https://hooshmandlab.dreamhosters.com/

Research interests: Nasrin Hooshmand earned her M.Sc. and Ph.D. in physical chemistry. Before joining Texas A&M University-Corpus Christi's Department of Physical and Environmental Sciences in 2024, she was a Principal Research Scientist at Georgia Tech's School of Chemistry and Biochemistry. Dr. Hooshmand is known for her work in nanoplasmonics, particularly her focus on light-matter interactions at the nanoscale to develop innovative solutions for sensing, environmental sustainability, nanomedicine, and healthcare. Her research, teaching, and leadership have earned several honors, including the 2023 Research Faculty-Community Leadership Impact Award, the 2021 Research Faculty Teaching Fellow Award, recognition in Leading Women @Tech (2021), and inclusion in the 2020 Faces of Inclusive Excellence publication.

Lucy Huang, Ph.D.

Professor

Office: RFEB 310B
Phone: (361) 825-2646
Email: lucy.huang@tamucc.edu
Website: https://sites.google.com/view/tamucc-gcl/team

GIS in public health/epidemiology

Scott King, Ph.D.

Professor of Computer Science

Office: CI 324
Phone: (361) 825-5877
Email: scott.king@tamucc.edu
Website: https://faculty.tamucc.edu/sking

Computer Graphics: Facial Animation and Modeling, Real-Time Graphics, Rendering, Scientific Visualization; Face-to-Face Human Computer Interaction

Yajuan Lin, Ph.D.

Assistant Professor of Marine Ecology

Office: TH 231
Phone: (361) 825-3657
Email: yajuan.lin@tamucc.edu
Website: https://yajuanlin.github.io/

Biological Oceanography, Microbial Ecology, Marine Biogeochemistry, Climate Change

Chuntao Liu, Ph.D.

Professor of Atmospheric Sciences

Office: NRC 1109
Phone: (361) 825-3845
Email: chuntao.liu@tamucc.edu

Research area: Remote sensing of cloud, precipitation and severe weather.

Richard McLaughlin

HRI Chair and Professor Emeritus

Office: HRI 311C
Phone: (361) 825-2010
Email: richard.mclaughlin@tamucc.edu

Marine policy and law

Paul Montagna, Ph.D.

HRI Chair and Professor

Office: HRI 122E
Phone: (361) 825-2040
Email: paul.montagna@tamucc.edu

Ecosystem studies with a focus on benthic components, freshwater resources, water quality, ecosystem modeling, and environmental statistics; and integrating natural science with human dimensions research.

Dorina Murgulet, Ph.D.

Professor of Hydrogeology

Office: NRC 3103
Phone: (361) 825-2309
Email: dorina.murgulet@tamucc.edu
Website: https://artesian.tamucc.edu/index.html

Physical and Contaminant Hydrogeology; Hydrology and Water Resources; Groundwater/surface water interactions; Coastal hydrogeology.

Dara Orbach, Ph.D.

Assistant Professor of Biology

Office: TH 340
Phone: (361) 825-3217
Email: dara.orbach@tamucc.edu
Website: https://daraorbach.weebly.com

Research interests: Evolutionary biology with a focus on the coevolution of anatomy and behavior, reproductive morphology, functional morphology, sexual selection, behavioral ecology, sociobiology, and decision-making processes. While most research focuses on marine mammals, Dr. Orbach is a comparative biologist with research experience in other systems including birds, bats, and fish.

Ioana Pavel, Ph.D.

Professor, Biomedical Sciences

Office: TH 235
Phone: (361) 825-3824
Email: ioana.pavel@tamucc.edu
Website: https://www.pavellab.com

Our team is dedicated to finding interdisciplinary solutions to address Public Health challenges, with a focus on Human Health and Environmental Health.

Jennifer Pollack, Ph.D.

Associate Professor of Marine Biology and HRI Chair for Coastal Conservation & Restoration

Office: HRI 210A
Phone: (361) 825-2041
Email: jennifer.pollack@tamucc.edu
Website: https://www.harte.org/research/coastal-conservation-restoration

Invertebrate fisheries and mariculture; oyster restoration; and marine ecology of marshes, bays, and estuaries

Ed Proffitt, Ph.D.

Professor

Office: TH 139
Phone: (361) 825-2358
Email: ed.proffitt@tamucc.edu
Website: https://edproffitt.wixsite.com/coastal-ecology

Ecology of estuarine and marine plants and invertebrates; ecological genetics; experimental design and biometry; applying multivariate statistics to address large-scale problems

Lindsay Prothro, Ph.D.

Assistant Professor of Geology

Office: CS 247
Phone: (361) 825-4062
Email: lindsay.prothro@tamucc.edu

Ice-ocean interactions, glacial sedimentology and geomorphology, marine geology and geophysics, stratigraphy

Alexey Sadovski, Ph.D.

Professor of Mathematics

Office: CI 338
Phone: (361) 825-2477
Email: alexey.sadovski@tamucc.edu
Website: https://www.gulfbase.org/people/dr-alexey-l-sadovski

Mathematical and statistical modeling and their applications to environmental, coastal, marine, and earth sciences and systems

Jian Sheng, Ph.D.

Professor of Engineering

Office: RFEB 313
Phone: (361) 825-3731
Email: jian.sheng@tamucc.edu
Website: https://sites.google.com/view/laebi/home

Toshiaki Shinoda, Ph.D.

Professor of Atmospheric Science

Office: SL 105
Phone: (361) 825-3636
Email: toshiaki.shinoda@tamucc.edu
Website: https://faculty.tamucc.edu/tshinoda

Climate dynamics, Atmosphere-ocean interaction, Physical oceanography

Roxana Sierra-Hernandez, Ph.D.

Assistant Professor of Environmental Science

Office: NRC 2510
Email: roxana.sierra-hernandez@tamucc.edu

Air Pollution, Atmospheric Trace Metals, Lead (Pb) Pollution, Data Analysis, Artificial Intelligence. Molecular Spectroscopy and Mass Spectrometry. Policies and Regulations for Controlling Air Pollution. Science Communication and Outreach.

Michael Starek, Ph.D.

Professor of Geospatial Systems Engineering

Office: NRC 3407
Phone: (361) 825-3978
Email: michael.starek@tamucc.edu
Website: https://mantisresearch.org/faculty

My research explores the merging of geomatics, remote sensing, and geospatial computing for science and engineering problems. Expertise includes LiDAR, autonomous sensing & UAS, photogrammetry, machine learning, and GIS.

Greg Stunz, Ph.D.

Professor of Marine Biology and Endowed Chair for Fisheries and Ocean Health

Office: HRI 311C
Phone: (361) 825-3254
Email: greg.stunz@tamucc.edu

Marine biology, marine ecology, marine fisheries ecology, fisheries, estuarine ecology, environmental biology

Kam Wing Tang, Ph.D.

Professor of Biology and Department Chair

Office: TH 309C
Phone: (361) 825-4164
Email: kamwing.tang@tamucc.edu

Biological oceanography, basic and applied algal research, greenhouse gas dynamics, bioremediation, wetland ecology, experimental plankton ecology

Philippe Tissot, Ph.D.

Associate Research Professor

Office: NRC 2801
Phone: (361) 825-3776
Email: philippe.tissot@tamucc.edu

My main research interest is the application and development of machine learning based techniques

Jeffrey Turner, Ph.D.

Associate Professor of Marine Biology

Office: TH 240
Phone: (361) 825-6206
Email: jeffrey.turner@tamucc.edu
Website: https://turnerlab.tamucc.edu

Microbial Ecology, Molecular Biology, Population Genetics, Evolution, Genomics, Metagenomics, connections between oceans and human health

Maria Vasilyeva, Ph.D.

Assistant Professor of Applied Mathematics

Office: CI 310
Phone: (361) 825-3023
Email: maria.vasilyeva@tamucc.edu
Website: https://vmasha.github.io/mvasilyeva/

Multiscale multiphysics problems, Heterogeneous media, Numerical methods, Multiscale methods, Upscaling, Machine learning

Benjamin Walther, Ph.D.

Professor

Office: TH 336
Phone: (361) 825-4168
Email: benjamin.walther@tamucc.edu
Website: https://sites.google.com/site/waltherfishlab/

Fish migration ecology; population connectivity; habitat use; food web dynamics; carbonate chemistry

Michael Wetz, Ph.D.

Professor of Marine Biology

Office: HRI 210B
Phone: (361) 825-2132
Email: michael.wetz@tamucc.edu
Website: https://www.harte.org/research/coastal-ecosystem-processes

Phytoplankton ecology, estuarine and coastal food webs and biogeochemical cycles, effects of climatic and anthropogenic change

Kim Withers, Ph.D.

Associate Professor

Office: NRC 3205
Phone: (361) 825-5907
Email: kim.withers@tamucc.edu

Tidal flat ecology; invertebrates & nekton of tidal flats & marshes; shorebird habitat use on tidal flats in Laguna Madre & Corpus Christi Bay; mangrove-associated faunas; seagrass ecology & invertebrate communities; impacts of succession on juvenile fish communities; fisheries resources in Texas & Mexico

Feiqin Xie, Ph.D.

Professor of Atmospheric Sciences

Office: NRC 3507
Phone: (361) 825-3229
Email: feiqin.xie@tamucc.edu
Website: https://faculty.tamucc.edu/fxie/

My primary research interests are in atmospheric remote sensing and atmospheric dynamics.

Hao Yu, Ph.D.

Associate Research Scientist

Office: NRC 3503
Phone: (361) 825-4105
Email: hao.yu@tamucc.edu

Greenhouse gas, marine carbon cycling, stable carbon isotopes, gas hydrate

Hua Zhang, Ph.D.

Professor of Civil Engineering

Office: RFEB 319C
Phone: (361) 825-2467
Email: hua.zhang@tamucc.edu
Website: https://wesa.tamucc.edu

Hydrology, water resources management, geospatial analysis, infrastructure resilience, environmental systems analysis

Lin Zhang, Ph.D.

Associate Professor of Marine Chemistry

Office: NRC 1109
Phone: (361) 825-2095
Email: lin.zhang@tamucc.edu
Website: http://zhanglab.tamucc.edu

Compound/Position Specific Carbon and Nitrogen Isotopic Analysis in Amino Acids and Application in Oceanography and Ecology. Stable Isotope Biogeochemistry of Greenhouse Gases in Alaskan Peatlands.

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Coastal & Marine System Science Program Directory