Director, Sanibel Captiva Conservation Foundation Marine Laboratory
E-Mail: lcoen@fgcu.edu
Office: Off Campus

www.sccf.org/content/58/staff.aspx#11

Phone: (239)395-4617
E-Mail: lcoen@sccf.org 

Dr. Loren Coen is currently the Director of the Sanibel-Captiva Conservation Foundation’s (SCCF) Marine Laboratory and holds a Courtesy Appointment in FGCU’s Marine and Ecological Sciences Department. He received his doctorate from the University of Maryland, College Park working in Belize on macroalgae, corals and decapods grazers. Over the past 30 years he has worked extensively with invertebrates (especially decapod crustaceans and bivalve molluscs) and plants (seagrasses, mangroves, saltmarshes and macroalgae), as well as on coral reefs and mangroves. His research has taken him to Central and South America, China, Bermuda, Brazil, Honduras and the U.S. Virgin Islands. Previously he worked at the Dauphin Island Sea Lab (DISL) and University of South Alabama working with in seagrasses along the northeastern Gulf of Mexico. He has been involved with graduate programs at the University of South Alabama, the College of Charleston, and the University of South Carolina and currently holds appoints also at these institutions. Coen has served on numerous graduate committees, as both major professor and graduate committee member and has taught graduate and undergraduate courses in marine ecology, marine biology, non-native species, marine botany and biological oceanography. Prior to arriving at SCCF, he was a Senior Marine Scientist, managing the Shellfish Research Section in SCDNR’s Marine Resources Research Institute in Charleston, SC. While there his research focused on: 1) ecology and restoration of intertidal oyster reef habitats and their ecological value as estuarine habitats; 2) interactions between oysters and fringing salt marshes and related erosion; 3) the effects of bivalve mariculture on tidal creek benthic communities; 4) biology of non-native species; 5) remote sensing and related mapping of intertidal habitats; and 6) disease dynamics of shellfish populations. While there Coen also led a state-wide community restoration effort called ‘SCORE’ (SC Community-Based Oyster Restoration and Enhancement Program) involving the restoration/monitoring of intertidal oyster habitats.

He has received national awards including a Coastal America Partnership Award, the Theodore M. Sperry Award from the Society for Ecological Restoration (SER) and in 2007, a NOAA Restoration Center Excellence in Restoration award. He has organized several Benthic Ecology Meetings, has served on the Program Committee for all of the biennial International Shellfish Restoration Conferences (ICSR), and served on the Executive Board of the National Shellfisheries Association. He is currently working with The Nature Conservancy on their worldwide marine initiative entitled 'Shellfish@Risk' and a valuation of their ecosystem services.