BOCA RATON, Fla., Sept. 12, 2016 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- A world renowned oceanographer and leading phytoplankton researcher will lead Florida Atlantic University's Harbor Branch Oceanographic Institute (HBOI) as its new executive director. Anton Post, Ph.D., who currently serves as the executive director of the University of Rhode Island's Coastal Resources Center, Graduate School of Oceanography, will be charged with developing and implementing programs that build on the success of all marine and environmental research at FAU. His appointment is effective in January 2017.

"FAU is committed to seeking out and hiring dynamic leaders with the ability to provide the strategic vision this university needs to remain competitive," said Dan Flynn, Ph.D., FAU's vice president of research. "Post's experience is impressive, as is his grasp of the need for collaboration in research. He will be a fantastic addition to the environmental and ocean science research team, leading the efforts and working with our roster of esteemed scientists, including Megan Davis, Ph.D., who has served the university well as HBOI's interim executive director over the past three years."

Post earned a Ph.D. in microbiology, a Master of Science degree in aquatic microbial ecology and a Bachelor of Science degree in biology from the University of Amsterdam. He began his teaching career as a graduate student nearly four decades ago in the Netherlands, and went onto the Hebrew University for his postdoctoral work where he spent 20 years of his career teaching and ultimately being promoted to an academic leadership role.

Post is well-published, with 120 peer-reviewed publications, and has been the recipient of numerous fellowships and awards, including being named visiting scholar at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and earning the Gruss-Lipper Fellowship at the Marine Biology Laboratory in Woods Hole, Mass. He has held several similar leadership positions at state universities, overseeing multimillion dollar budgets comprised mainly of competitively awarded research grants. In recent years, he also served as a program director in the Division of Ocean Sciences at the National Science Foundation.

"To lead Harbor Branch will be a privilege and an honor," said Post. "I look forward to providing effective leadership aimed at advancing current programs, developing new initiatives and working energetically towards recruitment of the resources needed to support these activities."

FAU is in its fifth decade of working with marine science and technology partners on applied projects that produce positive environmental, societal and economic outcomes. Post will be leading a new strategic effort to develop interdisciplinary research by combining expertise across many FAU centers and colleges including: HBOI; Institute for Sensing and Embedded Network Systems Engineering (I-SENSE); SeaTech: Institute for Ocean and Systems Engineering; Florida Center for Environmental Studies; Charles E. Schmidt College of Science and the College of Engineering and Computer Science.

Post will officially begin as executive director on Jan. 3, 2017, after he has completed his teaching and service obligations at the University of Rhode Island.

For more information, contact Carin Smith at 772-242-2230 or carinsmith@fau.edu.

About Harbor Branch Oceanographic Institute:

Founded in 1971, Harbor Branch Oceanographic Institute at Florida Atlantic University is a research community of marine scientists, engineers, educators and other professionals focused on Ocean Science for a Better World. The institute drives innovation in ocean engineering, at-sea operations, drug discovery and biotechnology from the oceans, coastal ecology and conservation, marine mammal research and conservation, aquaculture, ocean observing systems and marine education. For more information, visit www.fau.edu/hboi.

About Florida Atlantic University:

Florida Atlantic University, established in 1961, officially opened its doors in 1964 as the fifth public university in Florida. Today, the University, with an annual economic impact of $6.3 billion, serves more than 30,000 undergraduate and graduate students at sites throughout its six-county service region in southeast Florida. FAU's world-class teaching and research faculty serves students through 10 colleges: the Dorothy F. Schmidt College of Arts and Letters, the College of Business, the College for Design and Social Inquiry, the College of Education, the College of Engineering and Computer Science, the Graduate College, the Harriet L. Wilkes Honors College, the Charles E. Schmidt College of Medicine, the Christine E. Lynn College of Nursing and the Charles E. Schmidt College of Science. FAU is ranked as a High Research Activity institution by the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching. The University is placing special focus on the rapid development of critical areas that form the basis of its strategic plan: Healthy aging, biotech, coastal and marine issues, neuroscience, regenerative medicine, informatics, lifespan and the environment. These areas provide opportunities for faculty and students to build upon FAU's existing strengths in research and scholarship. For more information, visit www.fau.edu.

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SOURCE Florida Atlantic University

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