Dr. Christopher Malinowski

Chris is a biologist who is passionate about the conservation of marine and aquatic ecosystems. His personal and career goal is to contribute in any way that he can to minimize human impacts on these ecosystems and in turn to help sustain a healthy human population. As such, he often engages with the public and students on these matters and he has numerous publications and ongoing research projects aimed at answering important ecological questions and at filling in knowledge gaps to inform conservation efforts. His passion has led to research spanning the depths of the oceans, the North American Great Lakes, and across coastal ecosystems; and from microscopic organisms like zooplankton to some of the largest and most charismatic creatures in the oceans like sharks, sea turtles, marine mammals, and large reef fish like the Atlantic Goliath Grouper. He focuses his research on foraging ecology, niche partitioning, effectiveness of management and enforcement, ecotoxicology, health physiology, spawning behavior and patterns, life history of fishes, population- and community-level ecology, invasive species impacts, gut microbiome communities, effects of pollutants like microplastics/nanoparticles on food web ecology, and impacts of water quality on the behavior and health of fishes. He is also heavily involved in wildlife policy and management. His research has been featured in numerous magazine and newspaper articles and documentaries, including National Geographic among others. He is also a member of the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) SSC Grouper and Wrasse Specialist Group.

He received his undergraduate degree from the University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point, USA and upon graduation began studying fish ecology at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee Great Lakes WATER Institute, USA. He then went on to complete a masters degree from Florida Atlantic University, followed by a PhD at Florida State University. He spent two years (2019-2021) at Purdue University as a postdoctoral scholar, followed by a position as Senior Scientist at South Florida Water Management District, Florida, USA where he designed and implemented programs to monitor South Florida Everglades restoration efforts related to water quantity/quality impacts on coastal fish communities and their habitat. He now joins Ocean First Institute as Director of Research and Conservation! Chris is an AAUS certified diver and a certified USCG operator of uninspected passenger vessels (6-pack) with nearly 20 years of boating experience and > 800 days of sea time.