Dr. John Valentine, Executive Director
Dauphin Island Sea Lab
Biographical Information
Dr. John Valentine serves as the Executive Director of the Dauphin Island Sea Lab (DISL). Prior to being named the Executive Director, he served as Chair of the Sea Lab’s University Programs. Since arriving at DISL, he has written or co-authored over 95 grant proposals for research. Support for his research has come from both federal and state agencies including the National Science Foundation, National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and Environmental Protection Agency, the Alabama Department of Conservation and Natural Resources, the Mobile Bay National Estuary Program (MBNEP) and The Nature Conservancy.
In 2015, a research team led by Dr. Valentine was awarded $6.5M to conduct studies on the role of biodiversity in determining the resiliency of the Gulf of Mexico following the Deepwater Horizon accident. More than 75 students, technicians and post-doctoral students were supported by these efforts. He has been lead or second author on over 70 scientific articles in addition to serving as an academic editor for the scientific journals Marine Ecology Progress Series and PLoSOne. He has also served as a panelist for U.S. National Science Foundation, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, U.S. Geological Survey, and NOAA’s National Undersea Research Program.
In addition to his national leadership in the marine sciences, he currently serves on the Executive Boards of the Mississippi-Alabama Sea Grant Consortium, the Mobile Bay National Estuary Program, and Alabama’s Forever Wild Program. Recently, the Governor’s Water Agencies Working Group charged Dr. Valentine with assessing the impacts of future watershed withdrawal on coastal Alabama resources. Dr. Valentine is also a recent graduate of Leadership Alabama.