- Dr. Steven Miller
I was raised in Minneapolis, Minnesota, and learned to love things related to the water through fishing and boating. I even learned to scuba dive in the cold Minnesota lakes - boring. I left Minnesota for college and earned a degree in Biology from Brown University, in Providence Rhode Island. I expanded my diving experience with excursions to Narragansett Bay - again mostly boring but the flounder and quahogs were tasty! Immediately after college I took a trip to St. Croix, U.S. Virgin Islands, and diving on coral reefs and taking classes and eventually working at West Indies Laboratory (WIL) changed my life. There are a couple generations of coral reef scientists who first got their start at WIL. Indeed, the few years I spent at WIL were great preparation for a job I eventually got after graduate school, working for UNCW to set up their Florida Research Program in the Keys, including Aquarius.
If you're a student interested in marine biology, and especially that part of biology that requires work in the field, I highly recommend that you try and find time to take classes or work at a marine lab where you can literally and figuratively get your feet wet. WIL is no more, destroyed by Hurricane Hugo, but there are labs located throughout the Caribbean (The Association of Marine Laboratories of the Caribbean) - and the NURC facility in Key Largo is a great place too. Personally, I prefer warm water diving (I did my PhD studying algae in the northeast US including diving north of Boston and in Greenland) but there are many great marine labs located throughout the U.S. (National Association of Marine Laboratories). Also, there are some websites that provide great information about what you should think about if you are considering a career in marine biology (Becoming a Marine Biologist and Careers in Oceanography and Marine Biology).
So, what does a research professor do? I currently have several research programs that keep me busy, plus a number of projects that are more about communication and advocacy than traditional academic pursuits. In 1991, I started a long-term oceanographic monitoring program that in collaboration with Dr. James Leichter (Scripps) has reshaped our understanding of nutrient dynamics in the Florida Keys. The program started simply by deploying an InterOcean S4 current meter at Conch Reef - and it's still going strong under the direction of NURC Associate Director Otto Rutten. Dr. Leichter expanded the program significantly (for more information check out Dr. Leichter's 2004 Aquarius mission and a number of interesting papers resulted.
Before the end of the year (2005), in partnership with NOAA's Atlantic Oceanographic and Meteorological Laboratory and NURC, the S4 current meter will be expanded to a fully instrumented and real-time observing system with a full suite of oceanographic parameters measured, including an ADCP (Acoustic Doppler Current Profiler) for three-dimensional current speed and direction, salinity, temperature, wave height, oxygen, and for water quality a transmissometer and flurometer will be included. We are calling this observing system the "Key Largo Underwater Weather Station" and it will be one node in a larger network of observing stations maintained by AOML.
A major project I direct is a long-term coral reef monitoring project that was started in 1998. The project is designed to evaluate coral reef community structure and factors contributing to change at multiple spatial scales, across multiple habitat types, and inside and outside marine protected areas in the Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary. One of the things that is different about this project is that we use "old fashion" techniques of data collection (slates, pencils, transect tapes and quadrats) combined with sophisticated sample design statistics. The program includes over 500 sites from the Dry Tortugas to Key Biscayne National Park. A few publications and Quick-Look Reports are available at my website if you want to learn more about the project.
One of the things I've focused on in the last few years is related to communication and environmental advocacy. Scientists typically do not do a good job explaining what they do and why it's important. The same goes for most environmental groups; they tend to target their base (that is, the people who already support them) and they do little that could be described as interesting or innovative in terms of communicating messages. The result, ocean decline is at critical levels and the general public is either unaware or they are not motivated to care. Of course, I don't mean that environmental groups are the cause of decline! They are just not all that effective at communicating the seriousness of the problem. About three years ago I decided to learn more about environmental advocacy and the work conducted by environmental groups. I was fortunate to be asked to join the Board of Directors of The Ocean Conservancy and about the same time I helped start a communication campaign called Shifting Baselines (SB), which combines science and entertainment (producing Public Service Announcements, short films, a website blog, and more) to attract public attention, reach new demographics, and highlight ocean issues to advance important policy needs. The key element that distinguishes SB from every other communication campaign is an element of humor that is part of almost every project. When was the last time you saw an environmental PSA or message that made you laugh? Take a look at the SB website to learn more. I particularly recommend two short films, The No Seafood Grill and the Senate Hearings On Coral Bleaching. Recently, the SB Tiny Fish Public Service Announcement was modified and featured in a national environmental campaign run by the Ocean Legacy Program to highlight proposed governmental changes to legislation that would seriously weaken fisheries protections in our country. Other stuff I'm involved with includes a campaign related to mercury pollution and I recently executive produced a major film documentary about Intelligent Design that was submitted to the Sundance and Slamdance Film Festivals (we hear whether or not the film is accepted in December).
I live and work in Key Largo, Florida. My wife Tonia Sledd is a quilter (artist) and because of her support back home with the kids I usually get away with all the travel associated with the stuff I described above! We have two children, Jonathan (20) a Political Science major at the University of Central Florida and Andrew (17), a senior at Coral Shores High School. Hobbies include fly fishing and driving cars fast (on the race track).