Dr. Robert S Steneck, Professor at the University of Maine’s School of Marine Sciences. He earned his Ph.D. at The John’s Hopkins University in 1982. He is an ecologist whose research on coral reefs throughout the Caribbean and Indopacific ocean began in 1972. He also studied kelp forests coastal ecosystems in temperate to subarctic zones and lobster ecology in Maine. Bob has over 200 peer-reviewed scientific publications, which have received over 50,000 citations. He was distinguished for contribution to science as a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) in honor of his research “contributions to the ancient and contemporary processes that influence marine communities”. He was selected as a Pew Fellow in Marine Conservation in 1998, Bates-Morse Mountain Award for Environmental Lifetime Achievement in 2016, and the University of Maine Presidential Research and Creative Achievement Award in 2020.