DURHAM, N.C. – President Joe Biden has announced his intent to nominate Duke University Marine Laboratory Director Andrew J. Read to serve on the U.S. Marine Mammal Commission.

Read will begin serving on the commission upon confirmation by the U.S. Senate and the processing of his appointment paperwork by the White House.

The Marine Mammal Commission is an independent agency, established in 1972, to provide oversight for marine mammal policies and programs being carried out by federal regulatory agencies.

Read is the Stephen A. Toth Professor of Marine Biology at Duke’s Nicholas School of the Environment and the director of the Duke Marine Lab in Beaufort, N.C.

A widely cited expert on marine vertebrates, particularly marine mammals, sea birds and sea turtles, Read served on the Marine Mammal Commission’s Committee of Scientific Advisors on Marine Mammals from 2003 to 2008 and was president of the Society for Marine Mammalogy from 2008 to 2010. He also has served on the editorial boards of Marine Mammal Science, the Journal of Cetacean Research and Management and Endangered Species Research.

He has conducted research on marine species in North and South America, Europe, Asia and Antarctica, and has published more than 200 peer-reviewed studies.

Much of his recent work focuses on documenting the effects of human activities on marine species and developing and applying new conservation tools to resolve such conflicts. He has served on the International Union for Conservation of Nature’s Cetacean Specialist Group and on the International Whaling Commission’s Scientific Committee.

Read joined the Duke faculty in 1995. He received his B.S., M.S. and Ph.D. from the University of Guelph in Canada.

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