davidkweinstein@gmail.com
Marine Scientist, Analyst, Program Manager, Principal Investigator, and Webmaster
CV
I aspire to improve our understanding of coral reef geology and structure, and to educate the public and new scientists. My interests and expertise include mesophotic coral ecosystems and geology, artificial reefs, habitat restoration, coastal erosion and mitigation (especially associated with coral reefs), and sea-level fluctuations. My college education began in 2000 at the University of Rochester (optical engineering), but I transferred to the University of Maryland (UMD) and switched to electrical engineering. Eventually discovering my preference for working outside, I switched majors and received a Bachelor of Science from the UMD Geology Department in August 2007. While at Maryland, I also worked at the Isotope Geochemistry Laboratory.
My interest in marine geology began when I became SCUBA certified in Little Cayman Island in August 2005, after completing my first geology class. This interest grew while working in Miami with Dr. Robert Ginsburg during an internship in the summer of 2006. Some of this work developed into my senior research thesis, Taphonomy of the Late Pleistocene Key Largo Limestone: A comparison of modern and ancient coral reef ecosystems.
I received my PhD from the University of Miami, Rosenstiel School of Marine and Atmospheric Science (RSMAS), in the division of Marine Geology and Geophysics in 2014. My dissertation, Deep reef bioerosion and deposition: Sedimentology of mesophotic coral reefs in the U.S. Virgin Islands, focuses on understanding the variability and impact of bioerosion and other sedimentary processes on the development, maintenance, structural sustainability, and destruction of mesophotic reefs. This provided one of the first in-depth analyses of the structural foundation of mesophotic reefs, allowing for estimates of their sustained health and past and future growth potential. The research was partially funded with a National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship. Other funding was provided by the Geological Society of America, Sigma Xi, the GCSSEPM Foundation, ExxonMobil, the Academy of Underwater Arts and Sciences, the University of Miami Center for Latin American Studies, the Leonard and Jayne Abess/Citizens Board, and the RSMAS Graduate Student Fund.
After my doctoral studies, I was awarded my first (short-term) postdoctoral position by the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science at the University of the Ryukyus in Okinawa, Japan, in the Molecular Invertebrate Systematics and Ecology (MISE) lab of James Reimer. In Okinawa, I analyzed mesophotic coral reef recovery after major typhoon damage and studied the sedimentary characteristics of these deep systems. Following that research, I was awarded a Zuckerman Postdoctoral Scholarship for work in Eilat, Israel, at the Interuniversity Institute for Marine Sciences, studying the evolution, age, and past sea-level history of submerged fossil terraces in the Gulf of Aqaba, which form the basis for Israel’s critical modern mesophotic coral reef ecosystems.
Since working in academia, I have continued to collaborate with colleagues on mesophotic reef research (ongoing projects in Okinawa, Japan, and Eilat, Israel). I have also worked as a government contractor supporting NOAA and the Office of Naval Research; as an independent consultant (e.g., with a law firm litigating toxic exposure from material deposited as a result of the 2010 BP Deepwater Horizon oil spill); as a Federal employee for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (NEPA coastal studies, primarily related to Port Everglades); as a Senior Water Resilience Program Manager supporting the Assistant Secretary of the Navy; and as Director of Strategy and Lead Scientist, and now Board Member and Chief Science Officer (CSO), for the marine conservation and restoration nonprofit Ocean Rescue Alliance International (specializing in artificial reefs).