Mark Butler

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Dr. Mark Butler is an Eminent Scholar and the Goldberg Professor of Tropical Ecology at Florida International University in Miami, Florida. Mark grew up in the Midwest where he received a B.A. from Wittenberg University (1980) and then a M.S. from the Ohio State University (1983). He then moved south to Florida where he obtained a Ph.D. from Florida State University (1988) and then held postdoctoral positions at Florida State University and the University of Wisconsin. Mark was a member of the faculty at Old Dominion University in Virginia for 30 years, where he was a recipient of the Virginia Outstanding Faculty Award, Virginia’s highest faculty honor. Florida International University became Mark’s new academic home in 2020.

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For over 40 years, the Florida Keys and Caribbean have been the home base for his research, on which he and his graduate students have published over 150 scientific articles and book chapters on tropical marine ecology. Much of his research over the years has focused on the ecology of Caribbean spiny lobsters, an iconic species that supports the most valuable fishery in the Caribbean. Currently, Mark and his students are conducting experimental restoration of marine habitats as a means to better understand the ecology and sustainability of spiny lobster, coral reefs, and sponge communities imperiled by environmental change.

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Join Mark to see how scientists measure lobsters, sex them, draw blood for protein analysis of their health, and take a small sample of their swimmerette that we take back to shore to look under the scope to determine their molt stage and thus time to next molting!

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Mark will be on Saba October 13-20.

Presentation: October 15

Field Project: October 17

 

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