Jerry Wiggert is a professor of Marine Science in the School of Ocean Science and Engineering at The University of Southern Mississippi (USM). He served as the Associate Director of USM’s Division of Marine Science (2016-2023), where he led the establishment of the undergraduate Ocean Engineering program at USM that was recently successful in obtaining ABET accreditation. Dr. Wiggert’s recent research centers on the development and utilization of numerical modeling applications to reveal the hydrodynamic and ecological inter-connectivity of the estuarine and shelf regions of the northern Gulf of Mexico, where new insights contribute toward holistic understanding and the refinement of management and restoration strategies in light of water quality impacts that are influenced by changing precipitation patterns and episodic operation of diversion infrastructures (e.g., the Bonnet Carré Spillway). Dr. Wiggert was a founding member of SIBER (Sustained Indian Ocean Biogeochemical and Ecosystem Research) Scientific Steering Committee, and has served on the CLIVAR Indian Ocean Reference Panel and as the USM representative on the Consortium for Ocean Leadership. He is currently a member of the US National Academies Ocean Studies Board and is serving on the MBRACE (Mississippi Based Restore Act Center of Excellence) Executive Steering Committee. Dr. Wiggert received his B.Sc. in Mechanical Engineering from Case Western Reserve University and later earned Master’s and Engineer’s degrees in Aerospace Engineering at the University of Southern California, where he also earned his Ph.D. in Earth Sciences. Dr. Wiggert was an USRA Visiting Fellow at NASA Goddard, a research associate at the University of Maryland’s Earth System Science Interdisciplinary Center, and Research Faculty at ODU’s Center for Coastal Physical Oceanography prior to joining the USM faculty.