Posted: 3-21-2008
Karl Havens named director of Florida Sea Grant College Program at UF
Karl Havens, chairman of the University of Florida’s fisheries and aquatic sciences department, has been named director of the statewide Florida Sea Grant College Program located at UF.
Havens, who will continue serving as chair of his department in UF’s Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences, assumed the leadership position for Florida Sea Grant Wednesday. He replaces Jim Cato, who recently retired after serving as director of Florida Sea Grant for 17 years.
In announcing the Havens appointment, Jimmy Cheek, UF senior vice president for agriculture and natural resources, said Havens’ expertise and international background make him uniquely qualified to lead Florida Sea Grant, which is consistently ranked as one of the nation’s top programs.
“After conducting an extensive national search, Karl Havens emerged as the most highly qualified candidate for this important statewide leadership position,” Cheek said. “His professional experience, coupled with his strong leadership of UF’s fisheries and aquatic sciences department, will be a real asset to the continued success of the Florida Sea Grant College Program.”
Havens is an applied ecologist whose research focus is on the interactions in plankton communities, interactions between aquatic plants, plankton and fish, and the ecology and management of shallow eutrophic waters. He has conducted collaborative research with scientists in Brazil, Canada, China, Denmark, Italy, Japan and the Netherlands, and he is actively involved in the application of science in the management of Florida’s water resources.
Prior to joining the UF faculty in December 2004, Havens was chief environmental scientist at the South Florida Water Management District, where he led a research program, worked with lake managers to apply research results in large-scale ecosystem restoration projects, and communicated with decision makers, elected officials, representatives of other state and federal agencies, and the general public.
Earlier in his career, he was a faculty member in the biological sciences department and Water Resources Research Institute at Kent State University, where he taught courses in biology, ecology and aquatic sciences, conducted research on plankton dynamics in temperate lakes, and mentored graduate students in plankton ecology and limnology.
Havens is the author of more than 120 scientific journal articles. He is the founding editor of the journal Freshwater Systems and served for more than 15 years as associate editor of the journal Environmental Pollution. He now is a scientific advisory board member for the Korean Journal of Limnology.
He was president of the South Florida Chapter of Sigma Xi from 2000 to 2004, and he served on the Florida Department of Environmental Protection's Nutrient Technical Advisory Committee from 2003 to 2006. He presently is an appointed member of the Florida Oceans and Coastal Resources Council, which is charged with developing an annual research plan for the Florida Legislature. In 1999, Havens received the Edward Deevy, Jr. Award from the Florida Lake Management Society for his “contribution to the scientific knowledge of Lake Okeechobee.”
Havens received his bachelor’s degree in biology from the State University of New York, Buffalo, in 1979, and completed his master’s and doctoral degrees in biology at West Virginia University in 1981 and 1984, respectively.
Cheek said UF is the host university for the Florida Sea Grant College Program, which includes 11 public universities, three private universities and two private, nonprofit marine laboratories. The Sea Grant director reports to the UF provost and UF senior vice president for agriculture and natural resources.
The program’s statewide mission – reflected in its “Science Serving Florida’s Coasts” theme – is to enhance the practical use and conservation of coastal and marine resources to create a sustainable economy and environment.
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