DR. BJÖRN KJERFVE – MEMBER

Dr. Kjerfve serves as the President of the World Maritime University (WMU) since 2009 in his native country, Sweden. WMU is a UN postgraduate maritime university established by the International Maritime Organization in 1983.

He had been Dean of the College of Geosciences and Professor of Oceanography at Texas A&M University from 2004 to 2009. While at Texas A&M, he oversaw four academic departments, the Texas Sea Grant Program, and the Integrated Ocean Drilling Program (IODP), including the 475’ ocean sciences drilling vessel, D/V JOIDES Resolution. He was previously Professor of Marine and Geological Sciences at the University of South Carolina, from 1973 to 2004, and served as the Director of the Marine Science Program during the years 2000-2004. He received Ph.D., M.S., and B.A. degrees from Louisiana State University (Marine Sciences), University of Washington (Oceanography), and Georgia Southern University (Mathematics), respectively.

Professor Kjerfve’s expertise is coastal and estuarine physical oceanography. He has published some 12 books and 250 scientific journal papers, book chapters, and reports; has supervised 14 Ph.D. dissertations and 24 M.S. theses, and taught more than 6,000 oceanography students. His research includes analysis of processes in estuarine and coastal waters as well as climate change research and has attracted $20 million in research funding for some 90 projects. Dr. Kjerfve’s field research has taken place along the East and Gulf coasts of the USA, in the Caribbean, Brazil, Mexico, Colombia, Chile, Sweden, Thailand, Malaysia, the Persian Gulf, Papua New Guinea, and Australia.

He has been a Member of the Scientific Council of the “Maria Tsakos” Foundation since 2012.