Speaker Biography: Nick Aumen

Dr. Nick Aumen is an aquatic ecologist and Water Quality Branch Chief for Everglades National Park (US Department of the Interior, National Park Service), and oversees an interagency team of scientists and engineers tracking the progress of the south Florida ecosystem restoration program. His team, located at the Loxahatchee National Wildlife Refuge near West Palm Beach, Florida, assesses the potential impacts of restoration programs on Everglades National Park and other sensitive federal lands. Formerly, Nick was the Research Director at the South Florida Water Management District in West Palm Beach, directing a team of 120-plus scientists and engineers conducting research in support of ecosystem restoration.

Nick received his B.S. and M.S. in biology at the University of West Florida, and his Ph.D. in microbial ecology at Oregon State University. After finishing his Ph.D., he took a faculty position in biology at the University of Mississippi, and was a tenured Associate Professor of Biology until 1991, when he returned to Florida. Nick presently is an Adjunct Professor of Biology at Florida Atlantic University in Boca Raton, Florida, and has directed several M.S.-level students' theses on environmental research projects.

Nick serves on the advisory board of the Interamerican Water Resources Network, and helped organize two of the three triennial Dialogues on Water Management (Miami and Panama City). Nick also is on the Board of Directors, and serves as the national Vice-President, of the Sierra Club, a 109-year-old, 750,000-member US conservation NGO.