New Stony Brook dean for marine sciences

Stony Brook University has named Minghua Zhang, a scientist with more than 25 years of experience, as its new dean of the School of Marine and Atmospheric Sciences.

Zhang first came to Stony Brook as a postdoctoral student in 1988 before becoming a professor and later the director of the Institute for Terrestrial and Planetary Atmospheres. He was named associate dean of the atmospheric science school in 2003 and interim dean last year.

“Under his direction, we look forward to continuing our role as a vast resource for education, research and discovery in the marine and atmospheric sciences,” Dennis N. Assanis, Stony Brook’s provost and senior vice president for academic affairs, said in a statement.

Previous to his time at Stony Brook, Zhang worked as a research assistant scientist at the Institute of Atmospheric Physics at the Beijing-based Chinese Academy of Sciences.

Zhang holds undergraduate and master’s degrees in atmospheric sciences from Nanjing University of Information Science and Technology in China and a PhD from the Institute of Atmospheric Physics at the Chinese Academy of Sciences. He lives in East Setauket.