Michael Crosby
Past President
Senior Vice President for Research
Mote Marine Laboratory, Sarasota, Florida

Dr. Crosby has over 30 years of diverse research, teaching, science management and leadership endeavors. He has gained experience and expertise in developing, managing and conducting multi-disciplinary research and overseeing programs through his interactions, involvement and partnerships with numerous universities, national and international science and resource management agencies, programs and committees. Many of these endeavors focused on improving the “synthesis, translation and transfer” of science and technical information between research, public policy and stakeholder communities. During a great deal of his career, he played an active role in directly leading national and international multi-disciplinary research programs, as well as developing national policy and administrative aspects for our country’s science programs.

In May 2010, Dr. Crosby was appointed as the Senior Vice President of Mote Marine Laboratory, an independent research institution that has been a leader in marine research for over nearly 60 years. He came to this position following appointments as Associate Vice President for Research and Economic Development at George Mason University, and Vice Chancellor for Research at the University of Hawai’i - Hilo. Prior to those appointments, he served in a federal Senior Executive Service position as Executive Director of the National Science Board. He came to the Board from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) where he served as Senior Advisor for International Science Policy in the Under Secretary’s Office of International Affairs at NOAA. His previous positions in NOAA have been: Executive Director for the NOAA Science Advisory Board; National Research Coordinator for Ocean and Coastal Resource Management; and Chief Scientist for Sanctuaries and Reserves. Dr. Crosby also completed a special detail from NOAA to the US Agency for International Development, where he served for two years as the Senior Science Advisor for Marine and Coastal Ecosystems. Prior to joining NOAA, he held numerous faculty positions with the Baruch Institute for Marine Biology and Coastal Research at the University of South Carolina, the Department of Marine Science at Coastal Carolina University, the Graduate Program at the University of Charleston, Salisbury State University and is currently Adjunct Professor of Marine Science at UH Hilo. He has also had previous science positions with the National Marine Fisheries Service, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, and National Cancer Institute-NIH.

He obtained an MS in Biology, with honors, from Old Dominion University and a PhD in Marine-Estuarine- Environmental Sciences at the University of Maryland. He has developed successful research grants of over $25M from NSF, NOAA, EPA, DOD, USAID, and others. Dr. Crosby has led major national and international, multi-discipline, multi-year research projects, such as a US Man and the Biosphere Program project entitled "Ecological and socio-economic impacts of alternative access management strategies in marine and coastal protected areas"; the US, Israeli and Jordanian joint partnership project entitled “The Red Sea Marine Peace Park Cooperative Research, Monitoring and Management Program”; and the Hawai‘i State EPSCoR project entitled “Pacific High Island Evolutionary Biogeography: Impacts of Invasive Species, Anthropogenic Activity and Climate Change on Hawaiian Focal Species”. He is a member of the Natural Areas Association, Coastal Society, National Shellfisheries Association, Estuarine Research Federation, American Association for the Advancement of Science and is a Fellow of the Royal Linnean Society of London. He is also on the Board of Governors and past Chairman for the US-Israeli Binational Science Foundation, as well currently on the Board of Directors and President-Elect for the Pacific Congress on Marine Science and Technology, and President-Elect for Sigma Xi- The Scientific Research Society.

Dr. Crosby serves as a reviewer and panelist for numerous scientific journals and national and international science panels and advisory committees. He has published over 40 articles in Marine Ecology Progress Series, Journal of Shellfish Research, Journal of Experimental Marine Biology and Ecology, Diseases of Aquatic Organisms, Marine Biology, Marine Pollution Bulletin, Limnology and Oceanography, Ocean and Coastal Management, Natural Areas Journal, Coral Reefs, Oceanography, Aquatic Conservation, various Technical Memoranda Series, and has edited several books and manuals dealing with marine protected areas and coral reefs. In 2009, he also co-Chaired the development of a Hawai’i Statewide Science and Technology Strategic Plan that had been formally requested by the Hawai’i State Legislature.