MEET THE TEAM

Joana Figueiredo, PhD

NCRI Executive Director

Associate Professor

jfigueiredo@nova.edu 

Scholar | ORCID | Lab Website 

Wendy Wood-Derrer, MA

NCRI Administrative Director

National Coral Reef Managment Fellowship Director

wendyw@nova.edu 

Fellowship Website 

Holly Lynn Baumgartner, PhD

Halmos College of Arts and Science Dean

hbaumgartner@nova.edu 

Bernhard Riegl, PhD

Professor

rieglb@nova.edu

Scholar | ORCID

Dr. Bernhard Riegl is professor at the Nova Southeastern University Halmos College of Arts and Sciences (HCAS). He received the MSc degree from the University of Vienna (Austria) and the PhD degree from the University of Cape Town (South Africa). He also received the habilitation at Karl-Franzens-University Graz (Austria). He was editor of the international scientific journals Coral Reefs and Sedimentology, and is editor of the book series Coral Reefs of the World and an associate editor at the journal Scientific Reports.

Dr. Riegl’s research centers on coral reefs and other tropical benthic biota, such as seagrass and algae. He is both a biologist and geologist, his research and publications have involved the paleontology, sedimentology, spatial dynamics, ecology, taxonomy and conservation biology of coral reefs and associated organisms. He is also active in hydrographic survey, particularly sonar-based seafloor discrimination, which he integrates with optical remote-sensing to provide high-resolution maps of the seafloor. His research has taken place in the Red Sea, Arabian Gulf, Indian Ocean, South Pacific, Eastern Pacific, tropical Atlantic and Caribbean.

Dr. Riegl held grants from the Austrian Science Foundation, the South African Foundation for Research Development, the South African Association for Marine Biological Research, NOAA, the US Navy, the WWF, the Austrian Geological Survey, the US Geological Survey and many other local and international agencies. He is author of numerous scientific publications and technical reports for various agencies and companies. He has served as Commission of the European Community and USAID technical advisor in the environmental departments of several Middle Eastern governments and has played an active role in the development of coastal zone management, conservation strategies for coral reefs and environmental legislation. He is also an affiliate professor at the University of Graz, Austria, and a senior fellow at the Zentrum fuer Marine Tropenforschung in Bremen, Germany.

Jose Lopez, PhD

Professor

joslo@nova.edu

Scholar | ORCID | Lab Website 

Dr. Jose (Joe) Lopez has been a Professor at the Nova Southeastern University since 2007. He earned a Master’s degree at Florida State University, and his doctorate at George Mason University studying the evolution of mitochondrial DNA and its transpositions (Numt) in feline nuclear genomes which fit into the “serial endosymbiosis theory” of cellular evolution. Dr. Lopez then took on postdoctoral fellowships at the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute (STRI) in Panama to study corals, and sponge genetics at Harbor Branch Oceanographic Institute. Professor Lopez participates in a number of genomics-based projects.  For example, he co-founded the “Global Invertebrate Genomics Alliance”, which applies whole genome sequencing of non-model invertebrate species, and also dovetails with the Wellcome Sanger Institute’s Aquatic Symbiosis Genome Project. Dr. Lopez also currently serves on the governance committee for the Earth Biogenome Project (EBP), which aims to sequence 1.5 million eukaryotic organisms over the next 10 years. To characterize factors involved in water quality, his laboratory’s microbiome research recently focused on high throughput analyses of the meta-transcriptomes and metagenomes of cyanobacterial bloom communities in the Lake Okeechobee watershed, Port Everglades Inlet seawater and sediments and deep-water microbiomes in the Gulf of Mexico via DEEPEND (Deep Pelagic Nekton Dynamics of the Gulf of Mexico). Dr. Lopez has recently authored the book, Assessments and Conservation of Biological Diversity from Coral Reefs to the Deep Sea: Uncovering Buried Treasures and the Value of the Benthos (Academic Press).

David Gilliam, PhD

Associate Professor

gilliam@nova.edu

Scholar | Lab Website

Dr. Gilliam’s research interests focus on coral reef ecology as applied to restoration, assessment, and monitoring. His projects have strong resource management goals through collaboration with local, State, and Federal agencies. Research efforts include: investigating the basic ecology and potential restoration of Acropora cervicornis populations, two long-term SE Florida reef monitoring projects, and assessing the success of several reef restoration projects and investigating methods to improve restoration success. In addition to collaborating with resource managers on research projects, he actively works with and advise managers on marine and coastal issues.Dr. Gilliam is currently Vice Chairman for the Coral Advisory Panel for the South Atlantic Fisheries Management Council. He works very closely with the Florida Department of Environmental Protect (FL DEP) and NOAA sponsored Southeast Florida Coral Reef Initiative. He is also an advisor for FL DEP and FL Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission on reef damage and restoration issues.

Eloy Martinez, PhD

Associate Professor

emartin4@nova.edu

Research Gate

My research lab focuses on the thermal performance of aquatic and terrestrial ectotherms. Our current research focuses on exploring the linkages between mitochondrial coupling of oxygen to ATP production and whole-organism thermal performance. We employ various techniques, including high-resolution, liquid-phase respirometry (Oroboros Instruments), a well as high-resolution, high-throughput gas phase respirometry (Sable Systems).

Brian Walker, PhD

Research Scientist II

Research Program Director

walkerb@nova.edu

Scholar | ORCID | Lab Website

Dr. Walker is a Research Program Director at Nova Southeastern University’s Halmos College of Natural Sciences and Oceanography. His research centers on coral disease intervention, spatial ecology, community biogeography, coral reef ecology and geology, reef fish ecology, and seascape ecology particularly as they relate to the effects of anthropogenic stressors, latitude, and climate change. Of recent interest is conducting coral disease interventions in SE FL and restoring populations through assisted reproduction of the most resilient individuals. He is active in habitat impact assessment and restoration, shallow and deep-water benthic habitat mapping, GIS spatial analyses, optical remote-sensing, and hydrographic survey research, particularly LIDAR and sonar-based seafloor discrimination. Dr. Walker’s research has taken place in the tropical Atlantic and Caribbean and South Pacific including Florida, Mexico, Fiji, the Bahamas, Puerto Rico, and the U.S. Virgin Islands.

Andrew Bauman, PhD

Assistant Professor

abauman@nova.edu

Scholar | ResearchGate | Lab Website

Andrew is an Assistant Professor at Nova Southeastern University (NSU) where he runs the Reef Ecology, Ecosystems & Functions Lab (REEFs). He is also a Principal Investigator within the National Coral Reef Institute (NCRI) within the Department of Marine and Environmental Sciences. Originally from Ohio, Andrew has spent the past 20 years working on coral reefs across the Indo-Pacific (Australia, Singapore, Philippines, Papua New Guinea, Malaysia, and the Middle East). The central theme of his research is exploring broad-scale ecological processes that structure coral reef ecosystems under the overarching themes of climate change, disturbance, human use and resilience. He has worked extensively on the ecological ramifications of extreme environmental conditions on corals and reef fish communities. He has assessed the impacts of global change on coral reefs, and examined processes and mechanisms by which coral communities may recover and adapt, and how this can be incorporated into, or influenced by, management action. Increasingly, a core focus of his research has been quantifying ecological functions that promote or erode resilience on coral reefs, and how human activities influence reef functions.

Fraser Januchowski Hartley, PhD

Assistant Professor

fjanucho@nova.edu

Scholar | ORCID | LinkedIn

Dr. Januchowski-Hartley is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Marine and Environmental Sciences at Nova Southeastern University and Principal Investigator with the National Coral Reef Institute. He has worked on coral reef conservation and research since 2023, and focuses on understanding coral reef socio-ecological systems, reef fish ecology, and how to maintain sustainable resource use and ecosystem health under local and global change. In addition to conducting world-leading research on how fishing on coral reefs mediates fish behavior and the relevance to management, Dr. Januchowski-Hartley has worked on reef fish community ecology; how climate induced bleaching influences coral reef growth and health; and the adaptation of subsistence communities to environmental and social change. His research is interdisciplinary, and he works continuously with social scientists and conservation organizations to link ecological function with human resource use and well-being in East Africa (Kenya, Mozambique) and the Indo- and South Pacific (Papua New Guinea, the Philippines, Singapore and Vanuatu).

Susana Caballero, Ph.D

Assistant Professor

scaball1@nova.edu

Scholar | ResearchGate

Dr. Caballero's research interests include conservation genetics and eDNA analyses.

Timothy Swain, PhD

Assistant Professor

tswainnova.edu

Scholar | ORCID  | Research Gate

I am a marine ecologist and molecular phylogeneticist who uses the interspecific interactions of invertebrates to examine questions of symbiosis evolution, the evolution of functional form, the role of symbiosis in promoting and maintaining biological diversity, and the effects of climate change on the ecology of symbiotic associations. I use an integrative approach to my research and collaborate with diverse groups of colleagues, students, and professionals ranging from artists to engineers. A significant portion of my research focuses on tropical reef corals (Scleractinia) and zoanthideans (Zoanthidea), and their associated photosynthetic dinoflagellate symbionts (Symbiodiniaceae) and invertebrate hosts. While the Scleractinia-Symbiodiniaceae symbioses are predominately found in shallow tropical waters, the Zoanthidea/invertebrate symbioses are global and include at least six invertebrate phyla in most major benthic habitats ranging from intertidal mud flats to the deep-sea.

Abigail Renegar, PhD

Research Scientist

drenegar@nova.edu

Scholar | Lab Website

Dr. Abigail Renegar is a research scientist at Nova Southeastern University’s Halmos College of Arts and Sciences. She presently manages the Marine Toxicology Laboratory, the Coral Histology Laboratory, and part of the NSU Onshore Coral Nursery at NSU’s Center of Excellence for Coral Reef Ecosystems Research in Fort Lauderdale, Florida.

Dr. Renegar’s primary research goals focus on experimental evaluation of the impacts of land-based sources of pollution and climate change on scleractinian coral biology and ecology. Her current research is focused on examining the acute and chronic effects of exposure to environmental contaminants, such as petroleum hydrocarbons, metals, herbicides, industrial chemicals and pharmaceuticals, on the health of scleractinian corals and other reef organisms. The experimental investigation of the impacts of chemical contaminants on coral reefs provides science-based support for management strategies that promote coral reef health and resilience.

Karen Neely, PhD

Research Scientist II

Kneely0@nova.edu

Scholar | Research Gate

Dr. Neely’s Florida Keys-based lab focuses on coral disease, with an emphasis on the development, implementation, and monitoring of in-water disease treatments. Our activities aim to preserve coral tissue and diversity that would otherwise be lost while also researching the impacts of intervention actions.

Current Research Topics

• Development and implementation of in-water treatments for corals affected by disease.

• Assessing the impacts of disease intervention strategies.

• Assessing spatiotemporal distribution of coral disease patterns.

• Long-term monitoring of Florida’s remaining pillar coral population.

• The timing and cues of coral spawning.

Nicholas Jones, PhD

Research Scientist I

nj350@nova.edu

Scholar | ORCID  | Research Gate

Nick is a British research scientist at the National Coral Reef Institute, Nova Southeastern University, USA, where he also completed his PhD. Nick grew up in London and studied marine biology at Southampton University, UK. After finishing his undergraduate master’s in 2009 he undertook a scholarship at the Bermuda Institute of Ocean Science studying the coral reefs around Bermuda. This led to several years’ working abroad, studying coral reefs in the Caribbean and Indian Ocean, as well as shark movement ecology in South Africa, before returning to the U.K. to work for the Environment Agency. In 2015, he decided to get back into academia and pursue his interest in coral reef ecosystems, completing a Master’s and PhD at NSU. His research focuses on the impact of climate change and local environmental pressures on benthic community dynamics, spatial heterogeneity and resilience. In addition to research, he sits on the ICRS student and early careers committee, mentors multiple master’s students at NSU and has given guest lectures in marine biology, community ecology and biostatistics.

Jenny Mallon, PhD

Postdoctoral Research Fellow

jmallon@nova.edu

Scholar | Research Gate  | Website

I am a marine scientist focused on tropical coastal marine ecosystems. Through the lens of biogeochemistry, I examine interactions between seawater chemistry and benthic communities, aiming to understand coastal carbon cycling and the influence of climate change on coral physiology and ecology. My research centers on Caribbean coral reefs and seagrasses where global stressors such as warming, acidification, and deoxygenation have significant impacts. My background in hands-on conservation includes coral spawning, assisted fertilization, and larval rearing for restoration efforts. Collaboration with local communities and citizen scientists is at the core of my work, and I am committed to support and promote equity, diversity, and inclusion in marine science.  

Ronen Liberman, PhD

Postdoctoral Research Fellow

rliberma@nova.edu

Scholar | ORCID

I am fascinated by the influence of environmental conditions on coral holobionts and their associated microbial communities. My research seeks to understand how different symbiotic interactions promote the stability and resilience of marine organisms.

I obtained my B.Sc. in Marine Sciences at the Ruppin Academic Center ( Mikhmoret Israel). This was my first exposure to marine sciences and, at that early stage of my academic studies, I realized I am most passionate about this discipline. Thereafter, I enrolled in the School of Zoology at Tel Aviv University where I obtained my M.Sc. under the supervision of Prof. Yehuda Benayahu. I conducted my Ph.D. studies at the same school under the joint supervision of Prof. Yehuda Benayahu and Prof. Dorothée Huchon. In my dissertation, I incorporated genetic, ecological, and physiological methods to address the hypothesis that environmental parameters, including depth and climate-change scenarios, affect essential life history traits of zooxanthellate octocorals in the Gulf of Aqaba (northern Red Sea).

My work at NCRI aims to characterize the ecosystem services provided by Florida’s octocoral forests. I combine field surveys, photographic data collections, and computational analysis techniques to examine morphological features and biotic associations within octocoral forests. Additionally, using molecular tools, I identify the associated microbial assemblages and describe their dynamics across spatial and temporal scales.

Matías Gómez Corrales, PhD

Postdoctoral Research Fellow

mgomezco@nova.edu

Scholar | ORCID | ResearchGate |Github

I am a coral reef ecologist and molecular evolutionary biologist from Colombia, specializing in coral conservation and evolution within the Caribbean. I received my B.Sc. in Marine Biology from Universidad Jorge Tadeo Lozano (Colombia), followed by an M.Sc. in Biological Sciences at Universidad de Los Andes (Colombia) under the mentorship of Dr. Juan Sánchez. I later earned my Ph.D. in Environmental and Biological Sciences from the University of Rhode Island (USA), working with Dr. Carlos Prada.

My research spans diverse topics, including using benthic foraminifera as indicators of water quality on coral reefs and investigating the population genomics and phylogenomics of corals. I focus on how coral species adapt and diverge across environmental gradients, such as depth and temperature, and their physiological responses to bleaching events.

Currently, as a Postdoctoral Fellow at the National Coral Reef Institute (NCRI) under Dr. Joe Lopez, I am exploring transcriptomic variations in soft corals along the Florida reef tract. This research examines how gene expression correlates with environmental shifts. Ultimately, I aim to leverage molecular tools to study coral evolution and resilience, with the goal of informing conservation strategies that protect reefs in the face of global climate change.

Samantha Cook, MSc

NCRI Program Manager

Samantha.Cook@nova.edu

Samantha (Sam) Cook is the program manager for the National Coral Reef Institute at Nova Southeastern University. She received her MSc in Environmental Science and Policy from George Mason University, studying the histopathological effects of stony coral tissue loss disease on western Atlantic corals. During that time, she also led several working groups aimed at understanding the disease. She then served as the National Coral Reef Management Fellow for Florida for two years, housed within the Florida Department of Environmental Protection, where she managed the selection and funding allocation for coral disease and disturbance research projects across the state. Within the National Coral Reef Institute, she supports the administration of ongoing research projects and coordination across academic and governmental collaborators. She aims to bridge the communication gap between coral reef researchers, natural resource managers, and policy makers by facilitating conversation and creating spaces for information sharing and collaboration.