Marine scientist Stephan Zeeman named Ludcke Chair of Liberal Arts and Sciences
Stephan Zeeman, Ph.D., professor and chair of the University of New England's , has been named the Ludcke Chair of Liberal Arts and Sciences for 2009-2010.
Zeeman is a widely published oceanographer who has received numerous grants from NASA, NOAA and the National Science Foundation and has participated in many research cruises around the world.
Most recently, Zeeman, as project director, along with Susan Hillman, Ph.D., professor of education, and Charles Tilburg, Ph.D., professor of physics and marine sciences, was awarded a $2.8M grant from NSF in support of an innovative project designed to partner É«ÏãÊÓƵresearchers and their graduate students with the local K-12 community.
The project will engage students and teachers in six Maine school districts in inquiry-based learning in science, technology, engineering and mathematics by looking at interrelationships of physics, chemistry, biology, mathematics and geology in a local watershed using the Saco River Coastal Observing System.
Zeeman earned his Ph.D., in marine science from the University of South Carolina, Columbia. His expertise is in oceanography, phytoplankton, primary production, remote sensing, geographic information systems and Bering Sea ecosystems.
His current research focuses on food web dynamics, phytoplankton production, and the effects of climate change and land use on land-sea interactions.
Zeeman recently received national publicity as a member of a research team that discovered where basking sharks – the world's second largest fish – hide out for half of every year. The discovery revises scientists' understanding of the iconic species and highlights just how little we still know about even the largest of marine animals.
The research was featured in the New York Times, the Washington Post, CNN.com, The London Timesonline, The Christian Science Monitor and numerous other news sources.
The Ludcke Chair
In 2004, Eleanor DeWolfe Ludcke, 1926 Westbrook College alumna, bequeathed to Westbrook College an endowed professorship. The Ludcke Chair has two components: a one-year tenure as chair holder, allowing many faculty members in the É«ÏãÊÓƵ College of Arts and Science to be recognized for their high achievement as a teacher/scholar, and a stipend for the chair holder to use in support of his or her scholarship.