Michael Chambers

1.

I earned my bachelor’s degree in aquatic biology from the University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point.

2.

Prior to graduating, I participated in a summer internship at the Gulf Coast Research Laboratory in Mississippi and immediately knew I wanted to live and work by the ocean.

3.

The professor I had worked with during my internship hired me on after graduation, so I moved back down to the Gulf Coast to do research on seagrass farms.

4.

I made connections through work and travel that led to a variety of fun jobs and projects, including a lobster research project in Maine and a shipwreck excavation in Micronesia.

5.

I eventually decided to go back to school and earn a master’s degree in mariculture from Texas A&M University.

6.

I moved to Hawaii to help The Oceanic Institute and the University of Hawaii with an open ocean cage farm project where we grew Pacific threadfin, a local indigenous species.

7.

When the University of New Hampshire received funding for an experimental research farm, I moved back to New Hampshire to work on that—meanwhile, I earned my Ph.D. in marine biology and mariculture.

8.

Over the past 25 years, I’ve been specializing in developing ocean farming technologies for raising fin fish, shellfish, and microalgae species.