Perhaps you have found a way to harness for yourself the power of the tide. How else to explain the limitless energy you have brought to sharing—with students, scholars, policymakers, and the global public—your lifelong fascination with human interactions with the sea? You have developed unique expertise on marine extinctions and on the invasion of water habitats by non-native species, often to disastrous effect. You are called in whenever a new invasion is suspected, have testified nine times before Congress, worked on international agreements to better manage ballast water, and helped write the National Invasive Species Act. At the same time you are the founding editor of the journal Biological Invasions. No wonder the Smithsonian has named you an “Ocean Hero.” Here at Williams we regard you foremost as the longtime director of the Williams-Mystic Program, at which students can pull a bucket of slime from the water’s edge in Long Island Sound, or Louisiana, or California and explore with you what it shows about the history of the interactions of species, aquatic and human, followed by a discussion of the literature and art that those interactions have inspired, concluding with an examination of the public policies needed to ensure those interactions can continue into the future. There is no more experiential and interdisciplinary experience to be had by students anywhere.
I hereby declare you Professor of Marine Sciences, Emeritus, entitled to all the rights, honors, and privileges appertaining thereto.
June 7, 2015
Megamenu Social