Geoffrey Trussell

College of Science Chair, Director, and Professor, Marine and Environmental Sciences

Dr. Trussell received his PhD from the College of William and Mary and completed his postdoctoral studies at Brown University before joining the faculty of Northeastern. He is presently Professor and Chair of the Department of Marine and Environmental Sciences and Director of the Marine Science Center. In 2012 Dr. Trussell developed the white paper that led to the creation the Urban Coastal Sustainability Initiative (UCSI). The overarching goal of UCSI is to create an interdisciplinary research hub that leverages existing strengths in ocean science, engineering and policy to respond to the major environmental threats facing the world’s coastal marine habitats, particularly those located in urban centers, as well as both social and technical tools and strategies necessary to overcome these threats. UCSI is now producing innovative solutions that create cleaner, safer, and smarter coastal communities. The success of this initiative has paved the way for UCSI to evolve into the Northeastern Institute for Coastal Sustainability.

Dr. Trussell’s research program focuses on a number of issues related to coastal sustainability and the evolutionary and community ecology of natural ecosystems. Since arriving at Northeastern he has served at the lead PI or Co-PI on grants totaling $6.1M and has published over 65 papers and book chapters. During his research career he has gone to a depth of 2.5 miles on the East Pacific Rise in the Alvin Deep Submergence Vehicle and lived for 10 days underwater in the Aquarius Undersea Research Habitat, 11 miles offshore in the Florida Keys.