ResearchGate profile

Dr. Darren Rumbold is Director of the Coastal Watershed Institute and Professor of Marine Science at Florida Gulf Coast University where he teaches courses such as Ecological Risk Assessment and Ecotoxicology. He earned his Ph.D. from University of Miami’s Rosenstiel School of Marine and Atmospheric Science in 1996. As part of his Ph.D research he documented brevetoxin, the natural toxin from the red tide dinoflagellate, Karina brevis, concentrating at toxic levels in sea surface microlayer under non-bloom conditions. In 1997, he was awarded a U.S. EPA Environmental Science & Engineering Fellowship at the National Center for Environmental Assessment in Washington, DC. From 1998-2006, he served as Senior- and later Lead-Environmental Scientist with the South Florida Water Management District overseeing a program to learn the influential factors controlling mercury biogeochemistry, fate and effects in the Everglades. He also served as Technical lead for the Water Quality Team in the Southwest Florida Feasibility Study. He joined FGCU in 2006 where he uses this diversity of experiences as a teaching-scholar. He is an active member of the Society of Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry as well as Florida Academy of Sciences. He mentors students in taking a landscape-scale approach in assessing impacts of high-volume, freshwater discharges and the transport and fate of nutrients, mercury and other toxicants transported through the coastal watershed. He has been a consultant to the CALFED Bay-Delta Program; Maryland Sea Grant College; Tetra Tech EC, Inc.; Camp, Dresser & McKee, Inc.; and SFWMD. As principle investigator (PI) or co-PI he has secured millions in extramural funding and has authored or co-authored numerous governmental reports (many of which are published on the web), articles in peer-reviewed journals, and recently co-edited a 3-volume book on Florida’s mercury problem.

Consultant for: CALFED Bay-Delta Program; Maryland Sea Grant College; Tetra Tech EC, Inc.; Camp, Dresser & McKee, Inc.; and SFWMD.