Climate Change’s Donald Scavia’s Biography

Donald Scavia is the Graham Family Professor of Sustainability, Professor of Natural Resources and Environment, Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Director of the Graham Environmental Sustainability Institute, and Special Counsel to the U-M President for Sustainability.

He is on the the NWF Great Lakes Leaders Council, the Board of Directors for the Great Lakes Observing System, and Advisory Boards for the North American Nitrogen Center,  the Environmental Law and Policy Center, the Healing our Waters Great Lakes Coalition, and theAnnis Water Research Institute.

At U-M, he is on the Executive and Steering Committees for the Erb Institute for Global Sustainable Enterprise, the Center for Advancing Research Solutions for Society, the Michigan Memorial Phoenix Energy Institute, and the Sustainable Mobility and Accessibility Research and Transformation program, and the visioning task force for Matthaei Botanical Gardens and Nichols Arboretum.

He was the director of Michigan Sea Grant from 2004-2009, SNRE Associate Dean for Research from 2004-2006, Director of the Cooperative Institute for Limnology and Ecosystems Researchfrom 2004-2007, Associate Editor for Estuaries and Coasts from 1998-2007; Associate Editor forFrontiers in Ecology and Environment from 2002-2006, served previously on the Boards of Directors for the American Society of Limnology and Oceanography and the International Association for Great Lakes Research, and the Science Committee of NSF’s Collaborative Large-scale Engineering Network for Environmental Research program.

Prior to joining the Michigan faculty, as Chief Scientist of NOAA’s National Ocean Service, Don was responsible for the quality, integrity, and responsiveness of NOS’s science programs, and for ensuring its operations and resource management were based on solid science and technology. Before becoming the NOS Chief Scientist, he was Director of the National Centers for Coastal Ocean Scienceand Director of NOAA’s Coastal Ocean Program, where he managed coastal and Great Lakes research programs in NOS laboratories, monitoring and assessment offices, and extramural research.

Between 1975 and 1990, Don was a research scientist with NOAA’s Great Lakes Environmental Research Laboratory in Ann Arbor, Michigan, focusing on modeling and empirical studies on nutrient cycling, bacteria and phytoplankton production, food-web dynamics, and biological-physical coupling at all scales.

He holds Bachelors, Masters, and Doctorate degrees in Environmental Engineering from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute and the University of Michigan, has published over 90 articles in the primary literature, 30 policy and assessment reports, and over 30 reports and chapters in books.