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Departments and Areas of Specialization

School of Marine Science students pursue research under the guidance of faculty advisors. Advisors are associated with one of four academic departments. Interdisciplinary studies are encouraged and students may have co-advisors in different departments.

Learn more about areas of specialization of the faculty and coursework offered by the faculty in each department:

Aquatic Health Sciences: Major research areas include aquatic animal health and environmental health.  Current faculty research themes include impacts of climate change, parasitology, marine plastics, aquaculture health management, genomics and transcriptomics, harmful algal blooms, environmental pollution, disease ecology, and biosensors. 

Biological Sciences: Major research areas include estuarine, coastal and marine ecology, biological oceanography and marine biology. Faculty investigate the biological, physical, anthropogenic and climate-related factors and processes governing the structure, function, and resiliency of estuarine, coastal and marine species, communities and ecosystems, as well as their conservation and restoration. 

Fisheries Science: Major research areas include quantitative and organismal fisheries ecology and the management of fisheries resources. Faculty research themes include fisheries population dynamics, assessment, recruitment, genetics, evolution and systematics, food-web dynamics, physiology, and economics. 

Physical Sciences: Major research areas include chemical, geological and physical oceanography. Faculty research themes include the cycling of organic materials and major and trace elements, sedimentary processes, and water motion in estuaries and on the continental shelf, along with the associated transport of suspended particles, nutrients, and pollutants.