Press Release Courtesy: Adam Lowenstein, FIT News Bureau | Originally published: April 26, 2016
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Above: Florida Academy of Sciences 2016 Medalist George Maul, center, with David Karlen, left, the past-president of the academy, and current President Jeremy Montague.
George Maul, Florida Institute of Technology’s distinguished professor of oceanography and the longtime head of the Department of Marine and Environmental Systems, has been named 2016 Medalist by the Florida Academy of Sciences.
He joins Terry Oswalt (2010) and John Trefry (2002) as just the third Florida Tech faculty member since the academy started awarding the medal in 1963 to receive one of Florida’s highest academic honors.
“I am overwhelmed to be added to the long list of illustrious Florida scientists who have received this singular honor,” Maul said, “and thrilled to join my Florida Tech colleagues in this elite distinction.”
The Florid Academy of Sciences awards one medal annually to a Florida resident who has “contributed in an outstanding manner to the promotion of scientific research, to the stimulation of interest in the sciences, or to the diffusion of scientific knowledge.” Candidates may be research scientists, philanthropists and educators, journalists, science fair coordinators or members of industry, government or other organizations.
Maul, the Academy’s 54th Medalist, was head of the Department of Marine and Environmental Systems at Florida Tech from 1994-2014. He earned his Bachelor of Science degree (with honors) from the New York Maritime College at Fort Schuyler, and was licensed a U.S. Merchant Marine Deck Officer; he received his doctorate in physical oceanography from the University of Miami, where he later taught as adjunct professor of meteorology and physical oceanography.
He served nine years as a commissioned officer in the U.S. Coast and Geodetic Survey, and 25 years as a research oceanographer with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, where he received three Distinguished Authorship awards. He has been chief scientist on numerous oceanographic cruises and has published over 100 refereed articles and book chapters on oceanography and meteorology, 12 editorials, numerous technical reports and refereed abstracts, and seven books.
Maul is a Fellow of the Marine Technology Society, a Fellow of the American Meteorological Society and a member of Phi Kappa Phi, Sigma Xi, and the American Geophysical Union. He volunteers with the Boy Scouts of America and is a faculty adviser to Alpha Phi Omega service fraternity at Florida Tech.
