Christopher G. Lowe, a professor in the Department of Biological Sciences at California State University, Long Beach (CSULB) and an internationally recognized expert on sharks, rays, and marine fisheries ecology, was named as the university’s 2009 Outstanding Professor.
An alumnus of CSULB, Professor Lowe earned a B.A. from Barrington College, his M.S. in biology from CSULB and a Ph.d. in zoology from the University of Hawaii at Manoa. He returned to CSULB in 1998 to take over the department’s Shark Lab founded by the man who was his faculty mentor, Donald R. Nelson. Since then, Lowe has developed and taught 11 different courses ranging from lower division non-major lecture/laboratory classes to graduate seminars.
Dr. Lowe also built an outstanding research program; students studying under Dr. Lowe have moved on to prestigious doctoral programs, and many are employed in education, government and marine-related organizations. Dr. Lowe has authored or co-authored more than 40 papers in a variety of scientific journals and published three book chapters. He has two manuscripts in review and an additional 14 manuscripts in various stages of completion. Additionally, he and his students have given more than a dozen presentations in the past year at national and international meetings. His expertise, including using electronic animal tracking telemetry, has led to numerous invitations to collaborate with researchers at other institutions.
Dr. Lowe has received large amounts of publicity lately. He is among a team of experts who consulted on “Ocean in Google Earth,” a feature of the virtual globe, Google Earth, and he will be a keynote speaker at the Sharks International conference in Cairns, Australia, in June 2010.
As seen is the Press Telegram this week, Dr. Lowe and his graduate students recently released reports on the development of ecosystems surrounding Southern California offshore oil platforms that are slated to be decommissioned in coming years. The research provides new insight and is informing state and federal authorities charged with determining the oil platforms fate.
Dr. Lowe has also served as chair of the California State University (CSU) Ocean Studies Institute’s Diving Control Board and has served on the institute’s board of governors since 2008. He has been elected to serve on the Los Angeles-San Diego region working group of the California State Marine Life Protection Act; International Union for Conservation of Nature shark specialists group; and as co-secretariat of the Western Society of Naturalists. He is a member of the American Fisheries Society, the American Elasmobranch Society, the American Academy of Underwater Scientists and the Southern California Marine Institute’s board of governors.
When asked to comment on receiving this prestigious award, Dr. Lowe remarked that “It is a great honor. I’m still pretty shocked they selected me for this honor, especially since there are so many outstanding faculty here at Cal State Long Beach. “While I feel that I have contributed to my field of science, my students are my greatest scientific achievement. Many of them are going on to do great things. I’m very proud of them and what they have been able to achieve. CSULB has one of the best marine biology programs in the country and I am very proud to be a part of that.”
Dr. Lowe is a resident of Long Beach and is married to another CSULB marine biology alumna, Gwen Goodman-Lowe, a full-time lecturer at the university who is an expert in marine mammals.
Congratulations Professor Lowe. And Go Beach!