ANN ARBOR—Russell A. Moll, an experienced Great Lakes scientist and administrator, has been appointed director of the Michigan Sea Grant College Program.

Michigan Sea Grant is a cooperative program of the University of Michigan and Michigan State University. It is one of 29 Sea Grant programs nationwide dedicated to greater understanding, utilization, and stewardship of Great Lakes and ocean resources.

“As director, I hope to further invigorate the Michigan Sea Grant College Program,” said Moll. “I want to increase overall financial support for the program and capitalize on the diverse abilities of our talented staff.”

Moll has traveled, studied and published extensively on the Great Lakes, near shore marine environments, and temperate and tropical rivers during 20 years as a researcher at the U-M. His primary research interests are phytoplankton biology and biostatistics. (Phytoplankton are minute water-dwelling plants at the base of aquatic food chains.)

He served as Michigan Sea Grant?s assistant director from 1985 to 1993, and was director of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration?s Cooperative Institute for Limnology and Ecosystems Research in Ann Arbor, 1989-94, overseeing its rapid growth to over 70 affiliated scientists. Most recently, Moll served in Washington, D.C., for two years as associate program director for the Biological Oceanography Program of the National Science Foundation.

Moll’s work has taken him to The Gambia in West Africa, where he managed a research team that analyzed the effects on the country?s irrigation system of damming the Gambia River.

He received his Ph.D. degree in 1974 from the State University of New York at Stony Brook.
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