Michael Savarese

Michael Savarese is a Professor of Marine Science within the Coastal Watershed Institute at Florida Gulf Coast University. A former college roommate of Professor Ben Greenstein, he was on campus to discuss environmental policy, giving a public lecture entitled, "The Science, Design, and Implementation of Environmental Restoration: An Example from the Greater Everglades of Southwest Florida."

His research interests span the field of geobiology, combining disciplines from biology and geology to interpret the history of environmental change. He has expertise in the disciplines of paleobiology, functional morphology / biomechanics, paleoecology, taphonomy, sedimentology, and stratigraphy. His current research programs include the effects of sea-level rise on coastal environmental evolution, the history and paleoecology of reef development, and the effects of environmental change on oyster reef ecology. Prior to moving to Florida, his research program concerned the functional morphology and paleoecology of ancient reef-building animals and the evolution of planet's earliest skeletonized metazoans (the Cambrian radiation).

Savarese holds a B.S. Biology/Geology and a M.S. in Geology from the University of Rochester, Rochester, NY and a Ph.D. in Geology from the University of California, Davis.