Dr. Robert Summers

Dr. Robert M. Summers was appointed Secretary of the Maryland Department of the Environment by Governor Martin O’Malley on April 28, 2011. Dr. Summers leads the Department’s planning, regulatory, management and financing programs to protect public health, ensure a safe and reliable water supply, restore and protect air quality, water quality, wetlands and waterways, clean up contaminated land and ensure proper management of hazardous and solid wastes.

Dr. Summers has served the citizens of Maryland for 27 years in various capacities within Maryland’s progressive and nationally recognized environmental programs, with emphasis on scientific and technical issues related to water pollution control, drinking water protection and federal, State and local government environmental laws and regulations. Between 2001 and 2007, he served as the Director of MDE’s Water Management Administration and prior to that served for 4 years as Director of MDE’s Technical and Regulatory Services Administration. Throughout his career, Dr. Summers has been a key contributor the multi-jurisdictional Chesapeake Bay restoration effort.
Dr. Summers is Maryland’s Commissioner on the Interstate Commission on the Potomac River Basin and the Susquehanna River Basin Commission. He also represents the Governor on the Maryland Bay Restoration Fund Advisory Committee and the Governor’s Advisory Committee on the Management and Protection of the State’s Water Resources.
Dr. Summers received his B.A. (1976) and Ph.D. (1982) in Environmental Engineering from the Johns Hopkins University. Prior to joining Maryland’s environmental programs, he worked as a research assistant at the Johns Hopkins University’s Chesapeake Bay Institute and as a post-doctoral research associate at the State University of New York, Marine Sciences Research Center in Stony Brook, NY.

Dr. Summers and his wife have three adult children and live in Baltimore, MD. They enjoy hiking, canoeing and sailing on the region’s rivers, Chesapeake Bay and the Atlantic coast.

Dr. Don Boesch

Don Boesch is a Professor of Marine Science and President of the University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science (UMCES).  The Center part of the twelve-institution University System of Maryland.  It conducts comprehensive research, trains graduate students, contributes to public education, and advises public agencies and others on environmental and natural resource management from its five research units distributed across the state: Appalachian Laboratory, Chesapeake Biological Laboratory, Horn Point Laboratory, Institute of Marine and Environmental Technology and the Maryland Sea Grant College.

From June 2002 through October 2003, Dr. Boesch also served as Interim Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs of the University System of Maryland. In 2008, Dr. Boesch was given the additional responsibility of Vice Chancellor for Environmental Sustainability to lead the University System's Environmental Sustainability Initiative.

A native of New Orleans, Don Boesch received his B.S. from Tulane University and Ph.D. from the College of William & Mary.  He was a Fulbright Postdoctoral Fellow at the University of Queensland and subsequently served on the faculty of the Virginia Institute of Marine Science.  In 1980 he became the first Executive Director of the Louisiana Universities Marine Consortium (LUMCON), where he was also a Professor of Marine Science at Louisiana State University.  He assumed his present position in Maryland in 1990.

Dr. Boesch is a biological oceanographer who has conducted research in coastal and continental shelf environments along the Atlantic Coast and in the Gulf of Mexico, eastern Australia and the East China Sea.  He has published two books and more than 90 papers on marine benthos, estuaries, wetlands, continental shelves, oil pollution, nutrient over-enrichment, environmental assessment and monitoring and science policy.  Presently his research focuses on the use of science in ecosystem management.

Dr. Boesch received the Outdoors Maryland Award for Stewardship of the Environment from Maryland Public Television for 2010. He was appointed by President Obama to the National Commission on the BP Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill and Offshore Drilling and served on the National Research Council's Committee that produced the report America's Climate Choices. He presently is the Chair of the NRC's Ocean Studies Board.

Mr. Bob Perciasepe

Bob Perciasepe currently works for the United States Environmental Protection Agency as the Deputy Administrator. Bob Perciasepe brings to the agency a diversity of experience in environmental stewardship, advocacy, and organizational management. In his previous position as Chief Operating Officer at the National Audubon Society, he coordinated national and state programs for one of the country’s leading environmental organizations.

During the Clinton Administration, he served at EPA as the Assistant Administrator for Water and, subsequently, Air and Radiation. Prior to that, he held the posts of Secretary of Environment for the State of Maryland and Assistant Director of Planning for the City of Baltimore. With his management experience at the federal, state, and municipal levels, both inside and outside government, Bob provides a broad operational understanding that helps EPA carry out its mission effectively and efficiently.

Dr. Tomoya Shibayama

Tomoya Shibayama is a professor at the Department of Civil Engineering, Yokohama National University.

His research interests and teaching subjects include Coastal Engineering, Sediment Transport Mechanics, Tsunami and Storm Surge Simulation, Coastal Environment, Hydraulics, International Development Engineering, Sociology of Construction, Engineering Ethics, and Construction Management.

He obtained his Doctor of Engineering in Coastal Engineering and Hydraulics in Civil Engineering from the University of Tokyo in 1985. Between 1990 and 1991, he was an Associate Professor at the Division of Water Resources Engineering of the Asian Institute of Technology seconded by the Japanese Government.

He is a member of the Japan Society of International Development (JSID), fellow of Japan Society of Civil Engineers (JSCE), member of Japanese Association for Coastal Zone Management (JACZM), member of American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE), member of International Association for Hydraulic Research (IAHR), and a member of Japan Sociological Society.

Gov. Toshizo Ido

Toshizo Ido graduated from the Faculty of Law, at the University of Tokyo in 1968. After entering the Ministry of Home Affairs, he advanced his career in the Tottori, Saga, Miyagi and Shizuoka Prefectural Governments, the Land Bureau at the National Land Agency and the Local Tax Bureau at the Ministry of Home Affairs. He was appointed Director of Divisions at the Civil Aviation Bureau at the Ministry of Transportation, the Local Administration Bureau, the Local Finance Bureau and the Minister’s Secretariat at the Ministry of Home Affairs, and served as Deputy Director-General of the Minister’s Secretariat, Ministry of Home Affairs in 1995. He was appointed Vice Governor of Hyogo Prefecture in 1996, and was elected Governor of Hyogo Prefecture in 2001. Governor Ido is now serving in his third term.

Gov. Martin O’Malley

Born in 1963, Martin O’Malley spent his childhood in Bethesda and Rockville, learning about the fundamental importance of public service from his parents, Tom and Barbara O’Malley.  He attended the University of Maryland School of Law, and later became Assistant State’s Attorney for Baltimore City, a member of the Baltimore City Council, and eventually Mayor of Baltimore City.

Martin O’Malley is a fearless, intelligent public servant.  As Mayor of Baltimore City, he helped bring communities together to build a safer, cleaner and healthier city.  Now, as Governor of the State of Maryland, he is applying his knowledge, experience and energy to making State government work again for the people. Martin O’Malley’s administration has been credited with “accomplishing more in one year than most administrations accomplish in four,” and he is driven by a belief that all citizens share certain core values and goals, and works tirelessly to unite the State as One Maryland.
Martin and his wife Katie, a District Court Judge, have two daughters, Grace and Tara, and two sons William and Jack. They are members of St. Francis of Assisi Catholic Church.

Dr. Motoyuki Suzuki

Dr. Suzuki graduated from University of Tokyo (1963) with PhD (University of Tokyo, 1968). After serving as Lecturer and Associate Professor at Institute of Industrial Science, University of Tokyo, he was appointed as Professor in the area of environmental chemical engineering (1984-2001) and the Director (1995-8) at IIS, University of Tokyo. He also served as a Vice Rector at United Nations University (1998-2003). He was appointed as Professor Emeritus at University of Tokyo (2001). He also served as a Professor at the Open University, Japan and is currently helping Tokyo Institute of Technology as an Auditor.

Suzuki’s research area covers environmental technology development, environmental modeling, zero emission material cycles, biomass utilization, sustainability science etc. He has authored more than 300 reviewed papers and several books such as “Adsorption Engineering (Elsevier).” He has been awarded from Japan Society of Water Environment, Society of Environmental Science, Society of Chemical Engineering, Japan and International Water Association. He obtained Ministerial Citation from Environmental Minister Japan.

He is currently serving as the Chairman of Central Environmental Council, Japan, Expert Member of Committee for Science and Technology Policy, Chairman of the International Program Committee, Japan Society for Promotion of Sciences, and the Chairman of the Board of Directors, Northwest Pacific Environmental Cooperation Center, etc.

Mr. Richard Batiuk

Rich Batiuk is the Associate Director for Science at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's Chesapeake Bay Program Office located in Annapolis, Maryland. In his 25 years with EPA and the Chesapeake Bay Program, he has led the integration of science into multi-partner decision-making.

He is responsible for providing state-of-the-science environmental monitoring, multi-media modeling, distributed data/information management, and technical data analysis and interpretation support to the Chesapeake Bay Program partners.  Rich has been with the Chesapeake Bay Program Office since 1985, having previously coordinated the expansion and institutionalization of the bay-wide monitoring program and oversaw development and implementation of a comprehensive basin-wide toxics reduction and prevention strategy.

He is now focused on helping lead efforts to use EPA’s recent publication of the watershed-wide Bay TMDL pollution diet to help state and local partners accelerate on-the-ground implementation of the nutrient and sediment reduction actions.
He received his B.S. in Environmental Science from the University of New Hampshire in 1984 and his M.S. in Environmental Toxicology from American University in Washington D.C. in 1985.

Mr. Richard Hall

Secretary Hall has over 20 years of professional planning practice. His career spans experience in private consultancy and planning at the municipal, county and State levels. He has been an employee of the Maryland Department of Planning since 1992, first as a planner then, since 2003, in the capacity of Director of Land Use Planning and Analysis. Prior to joining MDP, Secretary Hall was a senior planner at the Harford County Department of Planning and Zoning. His earlier planning experiences included positions as a part time planner with the Planning Department of the Town of Carrboro, NC, an associate planner with Aquasystems Inc. in Greenville, NC and a Planning Intern with the Regional Development Institute in Greenville, NC. Secretary Hall is a Maryland native having been raised in Wicomico County and now living in Baltimore City. As such, Secretary Hall brings a broad knowledge of the State, its natural, built and cultural environment and its people.

Secretary Hall’s experience ranges from the technical and practical aspects of planning assistance and analysis to roles in advocating and advising on policy and legislation matters. As MDP’s Director of Land Use Planning and Analysis, Secretary Hall led a group of ten professional planners in the areas of review & comment of local comprehensive plans, zoning ordinances, annexations, and other planning policies, growth modeling and analysis and technical assistance, data management and crafting products relevant to smart growth issues and programs. State and local government and the communities they serve benefited most by Secretary Hall’s leadership in implementing the Priority Funding Area program from the 1997 Smart Growth Act.

Secretary Hall is the past President of the Maryland Chapter of the American Planning Association, a member of the American Institute of Certified Planners, a former Board member of 1000 Friends of Maryland and is Affiliate Faculty for the National Center for Smart Growth Research and Education at the University of Maryland, College Park.

The Secretary received his undergraduate degree in Urban and Regional Planning with a concentration in Environmental Resources and Public Administration from the East Carolina University in Greenville, North Carolina. He received a Master’s Degree of City and Regional Planning from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill where he is a member of the University of North Carolina Planning Alumni Association.

Dr. David Secor

Dr. Secor is a fisheries ecologist and Professor at University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science, Chesapeake Biological Laboratory. His research group investigates migration and habitat use behaviors and their influence on population dynamics of coastal fishes. Recent research includes contingent structure and dynamics of estuarine fishes, ocean ecology of bluefish, sturgeon conservation, blue crab and American eel demographics and assessment, pollution ecology of striped bass, blue fin tuna stock structure, Atlantic menhaden recruitment, and bioenergetics habitat models.

In addition to his research, Dr. Secor also serves as a scientific advisor to state and global natural resource agencies. He has contributed to the comprehensive climate change impact assessment Global Warming and the Free State for the Maryland Climate Change Commission, and also to the Chesapeake Bay Program’s Climate Change and the Chesapeake Bay.

As a professor, Dr. Secor is also a gifted advisor and contributor to the educational community at the UMCES Chesapeake Biological Laboratory and University System of Maryland, mentoring ten Master’s students and three doctoral candidates.

Dr. Secor graduated from Macalester College with his B.A. in Biology in 1983. He also obtained his M.S. and Ph.D in Biology at the University of South Carolina in 1985 and 1990.

Dr. Patricia Majluf is the Founder and current Director of the Center for Environmental Sustainability of the Cayetano Heredia University (UPCH) in Lima, Peru. She obtained her degree in Biology at the UPCH (1980) and PhD in Zoology at the University of Cambridge, UK (1988).
Since 1982, she has directed the longest running research program in coastal Peru, studying the impacts of El Niño and fisheries on marine wildlife populations. From 1996 she has led marine conservation efforts in Peru, promoting the establishment of marine protected areas and developing public awareness of the ecosystemic and socio-economic impacts of the industrial anchoveta (Engraulis ringens) fisheries, as part of an ongoing effort to develop the necessary enabling conditions for the implementation of ecosystem-based management for the Humboldt Upwelling Ecosystem.

Her most successful initiative has recently led to a nation-wide increase in direct consumption of Anchovetas, the keystone species in this ecosystem, which is massively extracted and is mostly reduced and exported as feed for aquaculture and industrial animal production systems.

From 2003 – 2008 Dr. Majluf was part of the leadership of a coalition of national and international conservation institutions and professionals working to reduce the environmental impacts of the Camisea Natural Gas development megaproject, particularly on the Paracas Marine Reserve.

For her work in marine conservation she has obtained the Charlotte Wyman Award for Women in Conservation, the Lindbergh Award, the Whitley Gold Award, A Guggenheim Fellowship and recently, the St. Louis Zoo Marlin Perkins’ Conservation Award.

Dr. Jonathan G. Kramer is the Director of the Maryland Sea Grant College Program
Maryland Sea Grant (www.mdsg.umd.edu) is a university-based, federal-state partnership that is part of a network of similar programs found in all coastal and Great Lakes states. Located in College Park, Maryland Sea Grant funds research outreach and education directed to the conservation and restoration of Chesapeake Bay and its watershed. Jon received a B.S at the University of Massachusetts, MS at SUNY Stony Brook and Ph.D. at the University of Maryland Center for Environmental Sciences where he studied the physiology and molecular biology of marine phytoplankton. Prior to joining Maryland Sea Grant he was on the research faculty of the Center of Marine Biotechnology in Baltimore, MD. There his worked focused on molecular mechanisms regulating growth and nitrogen metabolism in cyanobacteria. Since joining Maryland Sea Grant in 1998 his interests have expanded and now he works to apply new approaches to link science to policy development and decision-making in the environmental arena. Of particular interest is the use of facilitation, synthesis and consensus building to help address critical issues in the coastal arena as well as the development of effective science outreach mechanisms. Recent efforts include developing the scientific infrastructure to support ecosystem-based fisheries management in Chesapeake Bay, and a synthesis of historical data relevant to the suitability of dredged materials from Baltimore Harbor for innovative reuse options. Jon is engaged in efforts that foster organizational development, strategic planning and management to strengthen science-based organizations. He is currently a member of the Board of Directors of the Center for Watershed Protection and Hudson River Foundation.

Alaa Salem is a professor of sedimentary geology and head of geology department at Kafrelsheikh University in Egypt. He lives in the middle Delta region between the two major Nile branches, about 100 Km from the Mediterranean. Alaa received his B.Sc. (1983) and M.Sc. (1989) degrees from Tanta University, Egypt, and his Ph.D. degree (1995) from the University of Texas at Austin, under a co-supervision program between Texas and Tanta universities.

His research interests fall primarily within the reservoir quality evolution of oil and gas from deep sedimentary basins. He has served as a consultant to PETROBEL (Belayim Petroleum Company) in Egypt on the problem of high water saturation in the Abu-Madi gas reservoirs, Nile Delta, Egypt. Alaa has got several international experiences as being a fellow in many countries such as USA, Sweden, UK, and China, and has published articles on petrology, diagenesis and reservoir characterisation as well as on the ecological safety measures from the sediments of lagoons of the Nile Delta. He is the national correspondent of the International Association of Sedimentologists (IAS).

In response to the national aims of facing challenges of environmental threats affecting the Nile Delta coasts, he has switched his interest a bit to include the evolution of coastal wetlands. Since 2006, Alaa and his research team together with colleagues from East China Normal University were involved in research projects related to the distribution of inorganic pollutants in lagoons of the Nile Delta and the impact of climate change on its coasts.

Alaa and his wife have two adult children. They enjoy the beach, walks in summer, and travel. Alaa believes the answers are in rocks and soils.

Philippe Larroudé

Philippe Larroudé was born in 1967 in Marseille, France. He is married and has three boys. He obtained his PhD in 1995 and with a thesis on numerical methods applied to crystal growth. Afterwards, he worked one year for the French space agency (CNES) on the supercritical fluids.

Since 1996 Larroudé has been an Assistant Professor at the University Joseph Fourier of Grenoble. His research activities are hosted by LEGI (Laboratoire des Ecoulements Géophysiques et Industriels). He is in the Gravity Wave and Sediment Transport Team. His research interests are the sediment transport in the nearshore zone, wave generated flow around structures, and numerical modelling development applied to free surface flows. He has been involved in several national programs on sediment transport (Pnec, Liteau, Microlit, ANR Vulsaco) and in several international collaborations (Spain, South Africa, Portugal). Since 1997 Larroudé’s research activities have been regularly funded by EC through MAST-III (Scarcost), HUMOR, INTERREG III C Beachmed programs.

Professor Jan Marcin Weslawski

Jan Marcin Weslawski is a marine ecologist, professor and the head of the Marine Ecology Department, Institute of Oceanology Polish Academy of Sciences (IOPAS).

His research interests include crustaceans ecology and taxonomy, benthic-pelagic coupling, ecosystem structure and functioning, marine food webs, biodiversity assessment, Arctic coastal waters and Baltic sandy shores ecology and socio-economic problems of ecosystems natural values and tourism.

He obtained his PhD in natural sciences at the University of Gdansk in 1984. Since 1985 he has beenemployed at IOPAS as a research scientist. In 2000 he was appointed professorship by the President of the State.

In 1996-2007 he was the head of the Research Council of Sea Fisheries Institute in Gdynia and in 2006-2007 vice-director for Research at IOPAS.

Professor Weslawski is also a v-chariman of Polish Polar Committee, the member of Polish National SCOR Committee and the Committee for Marine Research in Poland. He also serves as the scientific advisor to state, regional authorities and environmental agencies. He is the member of the Environmental Impact Assessment Committee of the Pomeranian Province in Poland.

He has spent over 46 months in polar and marine expeditions and is the author of over 50 peer reviewed papers and of over 60 other publications including popular-science articles and guides or chapters in high school handbooks.

Professor Weslawski has also a great interest in consilience: bringing together of the sciences and humanities. He has been involved in numerous initiatives to promote this idea, including the formation of the Sopot Association for the Advancement of Sciences and has been voted its first president. In recent years he has been involved in brining the knowledge about the functioning of marine ecosystems to the general public, through many articles, interviews for mainstream media, educational programmes directed towards people involved in local administration and decision making, and in educational programmes for high school students.

Dr. Masataka Watanabe

Dr. Masataka Watanabe is a Professor of the Graduate School of Media and Governance, Keio University in Japan. He is also an Adjunct Professor of the Institute of Advanced Studies, United Nations University. He is currently serving as a Chairman of UNEP Asia Pacific Adaptation Network for Climate Change since October 2009 and organizing several consultation meetings with governments in Asia-Pacific region in order to identify the effects of climate change, vulnerability, adaptation measures and gap in technological and finacial availabilities. He is a Chairman of Scientific and Policy Committee in the International Center for EMECS.

He received his Ph.D. degree in Civil and Environmental Engineering from Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1975. After conducting research at MIT for one year, he joined to International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis in Austria from 1977-1978 where he was exposed to ecosystem science and ecosystem modeling with multidisciplinary research group from all over the world. In 1978 he was appointed as a project leader of red tide research at the National Institute for Environmental Studies, Japan and conducted pioneering research on microcosm/mesocosm experiments in order to identify the mechanism of red tide outbreaks in the Seto Inland Sea. He continued to serve as a leader of various projects such as integrated marine ecosystem modeling for total pollution loads control in the enclosed sea, modeling of water/heat/material cycles in the catchment of Yangtze river -Yagtze estuary-East China Sea, etc. He had been a Director of Division of Water and Soil Environment at the National Institute for Environmental Studies and also at the same time he was appointed as a Professor of Graduate School of Agricultural and Life Sciences at the University of Tokyo from 2000 to 2005. He participated to UN Millennium Ecosystem Assessment from 2000 to 2004 as a Coordinating Lead Author in the China Sub-Global Assessment. Through the long collaborative research with Chinese Academy of Science, he was awarded Tien Shan Prize from Government of China (2003) for his scientific contributions. He is a member of Central Environmental Council, National Council on Development of Water Resources, and other numerous National Councils and Committees in Japanese Government. He has authored more than 150 peer-reviewed international journal articles and two books.