New Head of Marine Biology Department Announced
The Texas A&M University at Galveston Office of the Chief Academic Officer is pleased to announce the appointment of Dr. Daniel Roelke as the head of TAMUG’s Department of Marine Biology, effective August 1, 2019. In this role, he will report to Executive Associate Vice President for Academic Affairs and Chief Academic Officer Dr. Patrick Louchouarn.
In this role, Dr. Roelke will serve as the chief academic, fiscal, development and administrative officer for the department, and will be responsible for facilitating an effective learning and instructional climate within the department, as well as furthering excellence in research, teaching and service.
Dr. Roelke is currently a professor with the Wildlife and Fisheries Sciences Department at Texas A&M University, where he is also a faculty member of three interdisciplinary programs, including the Marine Biology IDP, which spans TAMUG, TAMU and Texas A&M University – Corpus Christi.
Dr. Roelke is well recognized in his field, having been awarded the 2015 American Fisheries Society Texas Chapter’s “Outstanding Fisheries Educator” and TAMU’s 2015 Wildlife and Fisheries Sciences “Outstanding Graduate Teaching” awards. He has, and continues, to serve as associate editor and guest editor for several scientific journals, along with publishing multiple peer reviewed journal articles, conference proceedings and book chapters, many of which are first-authored and with prominent international collaborators
During the past two and a half decades, Dr. Roelke’s research program used diverse methods and approaches to study the biology and ecology of plankton communities in aquatic systems. He has made particular contributions to the understanding of how environmental disturbances affect species succession with an emphasis on harmful algal blooms. He has led and participated in research projects in diverse ecosystems, including rivers, lakes, bays and coastal ocean environments in the U.S., Caribbean, Venezuela, Greece, Israel, Saudi Arabia and Australia.
Dr. Roelke holds a bachelor’s in earth science from Millersville University, and a master’s in Oceanography and a doctoral degree in oceanography, both from TAMU. He spent one year as a postdoctoral fellow with the Consortium of Oceanographic Research and Education at the Naval Research Laboratory Stennis Space Center in Mississippi. He has been a member of the TAMU faculty since September 1998, with positions of assistant professor, associate professor and full professor, all within the Department of Wildlife and Fisheries Sciences.
Please join us in congratulating Dr. Daniel Roelke on his new position.