President Hanbury participates in Morning Dive during Grand Opening of NSU Coral Reef Center

(Photo caption left to right: NSU President George L. Hanbury II, Ph.D., joins NSU Farquhar College of Arts and Sciences undergraduate student Erica Oliva and NSU Oceanographic Center doctoral student Liz Larson at the university’s offshore coral reef nursery located off the coast of Ft. Lauderdale.)

Former Vice President Al Gore spoke at the Sept. 27 grand opening of Nova Southeastern University’s (NSU) $50 million coral reef research center.

An environmentalist and Nobel Peace Prize winner, Gore toured the scientific laboratories of NSU’s 86,000-square-foot Center of Excellence for Coral Reef Ecosystems Research. The facility is located at NSU’s Oceanographic Center at the John U. Lloyd Beach State Park. U.S. Congresswoman and Democratic National Committee Chair Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-Weston), who assisted NSU in securing a $15 million federal grant to fund the Center, as well as other federal dignitaries, also spoke at the grand opening ceremony. In fact, Wasserman Schultz was the keynote speaker.

The Center is focused on researching coral reef ecosystems in South Florida, throughout the nation, and around the world. The study of coral reef ecosystems is vital to the protection of our oceans. The opening of the Center has created 22 new academic jobs and 300 construction jobs; and it will employ 50 graduate students as well as preserving 22 existing academic jobs. NSU received a $15 million competitive grant from the U.S. Department of Commerce (using funding from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009) to build the center, while the university funded the rest of the project.

“By opening this state-of-the-art facility, NSU is taking a leadership role in Florida’s marine science research and helping boost an important multibillion-dollar coral reef industry that employs thousands of South Floridians and sustains many small businesses,” said NSU President George L. Hanbury II, Ph.D., who went diving on the morning of the grand opening to visit NSU’s offshore coral reef nurseries. “The research Center is critical for the environmental sustainability of coral reefs, which are the life blood of our region and oceans, and their ecosystems.”

The grant was one of 12 given by the Department of Commerce’s National Institute of Standards and Technology as a result of a nationwide competition.  NSU was one of two institutions to receive the largest amount awarded at $15 million.  Other grantees included the Woods Hole Oceanographic Center, Columbia University, Purdue, Georgia Tech Research Corporation, Georgetown University, and University of Maryland, putting NSU in elite company. The new Center will be the largest and only research facility in the nation solely dedicated to coral reef ecosystems research.

In addition to having laboratories and sophisticated equipment, the Center has space for research collaboration, training, and fieldwork staging, a marine science library and an 85-seat auditorium. The building’s design promotes research by current and new faculty, researchers, visiting scientists, post-doctoral fellows, and graduate students.

The Center of Excellence houses NSU’s National Coral Reef Institute (NCRI), the Guy Harvey Research Institute (GHRI) and Save Our Seas Shark Center. Artwork by renowned marine artist Guy Harvey, Ph.D., who also donated $200,000 to GHRI, is prominently featured in the building’s interior.

For more information, please visit: http://www.nova.edu/ocean/excellence/index.html