New Flagship, Research Institute and Environmental Center promote collaboration

In October 2006, President John Delaney announced that Coastal Biology in the College of Arts and Sciences would become the University's fourth flagship program. As a result, Coastal Biology will receive $1 million over the next four years to help the program set a course to achieve national prominence.

At the same October news conference, Bruce Taylor, chair of the UNF Board of Trustees and CEO of Taylor Engineering Inc., announced that his firm would give $1 million to the College of Computing, Engineering and Construction to create the Taylor Engineering Research Institute. The gift, which qualifies for a $500,000 match by the state, creates a permanent $1.5 million endowment that will enable the institute to promote collaborative research among academic, professional and government engineers in coastal and water resource engineering.

Although the Taylor Engineering Research Institute and the Coastal Biology Program are based in different colleges and focused on different areas of study and research, administrators in both colleges expect the two programs to participate in joint projects likely to be of significance to Jacksonville and northeast Florida.

A student is holding a net just above a vegetated lake while standing on shore.

“Coastal biology is extremely relevant to the community around us because the issues we investigate really relate to Jacksonville and the people here … nutrients in the St. Johns River, algae blooms and ways to conserve other coastal organisms like sea oats and terrapins,” said Dr. Daniel Moon, assistant professor of biology and chair of the search committee for a director of the Coastal Biology program. “That type of research directly increases our value to the community.” Likewise, coastal engineering is extremely relevant in Jacksonville, where waterfront development is commonplace, environmental threats from hurricanes, water levels, waves and wind are common, and environmental permits required.

Dr. Neal Coulter, dean of the College of Computing, Engineering and Construction (CCEC), said he expects the UNF Environmental Center to become the connecting point between the two programs. Two CCEC programs, civil engineering and computing, already participate in some environmental research with their coastal modeling and atmospheric modeling. “Everyone has to deal with environmental issues, there's no question about that,” Coulter said. Events like Hurricane Katrina are important because they show things the models didn't, Coulter said. Meanwhile, the increasing population in the coastal zone makes it imperative that researchers find innovative solutions for coastal development.

“In the long run, there's a very good possibility we'll have joint research projects with Coastal Biology,” Coulter said. Dr. Joe Butler, chair of the Biology Department, said, “All of us expect that to happen. We want that to happen. We want to work with Engineering and the Environmental Center.” Dr. Ray Bowman, a chemistry professor and director of the UNF Environmental Center, said the center “can greatly assist in making the most efficient use of university resources by being the focal point for collaboration between several UNF academic units engaged in environmentally oriented programs. “Environmental issues are by their very nature multidisciplinary,” Bowman said.

The center, which was created to support existing academic units, can make the most efficient use of university resources by being the focal point for synergistic collaboration and leveraging complementary resources to thebenefit of the university, the community and the environment, Bowman said.

While the Taylor Engineering Research Institute will promote and support collaborative research in coastal and water resources engineering and science, Coastal Biology will offer a study track focusing on the study and research of coastal ecosystems. Yet a natural synergy exists between the two disciplines. “It's really a natural match because development in coastal areas is definitely going to occur. One of the challenges will be to understand and minimize the impact of that development on coastal areas,” said Moon. “That's one of the ways the Biology Department can be involved, to assess and devise ways to minimize the effects of development and human habitation on coastal ecosystems.”

With the infusion of money Coastal Biology will receive as a result of being named a flagship program, Moon said the department plans to hire a senior level biologist with the expertise, contacts and reputation to raise the program to national prominence to serve as director of the program. He also said he expects money will be available for research grants in such areas as nutrients and pollutants in the St. Johns River, as well as other faculty research, graduate and undergraduate student projects and summer workshops for students and K-12 educators.

Moon said he expects Coastal Biology and the Taylor Engineering Research Institute to begin working on joint projects after each entity hires a permanent director and takes care of the housekeeping and logistics required to get the programs started. He's especially excited about the prospect of working with the computer modeling being done by CCEC. “That would particularly help us with long-term projections as well as hypotheticals, such as the rise of sea level,” he said. “There's definitely a synergy there.”