Dr. Ivan Valiela, a critically acclaimed author, researcher and educator, will speak at the University of South Alabama, Nov. 13 at 7 p.m.

Valiela’s lecture, “Global Coastal Change,” will address human-impact along coastal areas and the growing population boom on U.S. coasts, said Lisa Young, public relations director with Dauphin Island Sea Lab, a state-sanctioned marine laboratory on the barrier island.   

“He is the guy…to talk about human impact,” Young said in a phone interview.  “Population on the coasts is growing and we need to consider the impacts for humans and the environment to co-exist.”

Valiela will be featured as the 14th Annual Wiese Distinguished Lecturer, part of an annual lecture series sponsored by the University of South Alabama and the Wiese endowment, which brings an eminent scientist to the university and the sea lab.  

Valiela is a Professor of Biology at the Boston University Marine Program, Woods Hole, the largest non-profit oceanographic institution in the world, dedicated to understanding the oceans and their interaction with Earth.

“Dr. Ivan Valiela is truly a scientist-educator.  His work on human impacts on estuarine systems has become more relevant and critical as the coasts become ever more crowded.  His scientific writings have become the gold standard in the field of coastal estuarine research,” said Dr. Bob Shipp, Chair of the Department of Marine Sciences at the University of South Alabama, in a press release.

Valiela has authored over 200 papers in 35 years as a researcher and wrote an influential text on coastal marine ecosystems, “Marine Ecological Processes,” and his latest book, “Global Coastal Change,” reviews the facts related to human coastal impacts and ecological change.  

Admission to the lecture is free and open to the general public.  It will be held at the Mitchell Center, John Counts Room.  For more information, call 251-460-7136.