Mote Marine Laboratory has announced Dr. Cynthia Heil as director of its new Red Tide Institute, which focuses on studying and testing Florida red tide mitigation and control technologies to improve quality of life for coastal communities affected by these challenging harmful algal blooms (HABs). Heil will join Mote on January 1, 2019, as Senior Scientist for the HAB Mitigation Research Program and Director of the Red Tide Institute at Mote, applying her decades of laboratory and field experience studying K. brevis and other species of harmful algae. She comes to Mote from Bigelow Laboratory for Ocean Sciences in Maine, where she developed an independent research program focused on water quality, harmful algal blooms and ecosystem management. By accepting this new position, she will renew her long-term focus on K. brevis research in Florida, where she previously served as Senior Research Scientist & Administrator and Harmful Algal Bloom Group Leader for FWC’s Fish and Wildlife Research Institute and led earlier algal bloom research at the University of South Florida’s College of Marine Science (USF). Heil’s new HAB Mitigation Research Program will complement five ongoing and diverse Mote research programs working on Florida red tide.

Mote Marine Laboratory & Aquarium