Two people looking over a balcony with a beaked whale skeleton in the foreground. — Rick Grosberg (left) served for 10 years as the Coastal and Marine Sciences Institute’s director, a post that will now be filled by interim director Jay Stachowicz (right). Grosberg and Stachowicz are pictured on the landing of Storer Hall, beside the Pacific Beaked Whale skeleton that hangs in the main entryway. (TJ Ushing / UC Davis)

Jay Stachowicz named Interim Director of Coastal and Marine Sciences Institute, Succeeds Founding Director Rick Grosberg

Interdisciplinary research and teaching institute draws faculty and students from across UC Davis

by Evan White
November 28, 2023

Jay Stachowicz, a professor in the Department of Evolution and Ecology, has been named the interim director of the Coastal and Marine Sciences Institute (CMSI). Stachowicz succeeds the institute’s founding director, Rick Grosberg, a distinguished professor emeritus of evolution and ecology who retired from the university earlier this year.

Longtime colleagues, Stachowicz, who studies the biodiversity and resilience of coastal ecosystems, and Grosberg, a leading researcher on the ways marine invertebrates recognize and interact with one another, share a common passion for fostering community and collaboration in marine sciences.