Oil Spill Specialist Starts Duties

Emily Maung-Douglass is Louisiana Sea Grant’s (LSG) new oil spill outreach Extension specialist.

Maung-Douglass is one of four recent hires by the Gulf of Mexico Sea Grant programs. The outreach positions are funded by the Gulf of Mexico Research Initiative (GoMRI). Her duties, which she began in September, will focus on sharing newly discovered oil spill research results with target audiences throughout the Gulf of Mexico and beyond.

Maung-Douglass is an interdisciplinary marine scientist with expertise at the interface of ecology, chemistry and toxicology. She aims to use her experiences in these areas to gain a holistic understanding of Deepwater Horizon oil spill issues and incorporate that understanding into her role with Sea Grant.

Prior to coming to work for LSG, she completed a visiting scientist fellowship in a marine molecular toxicology lab at Xiamen University (Fujian, P.R. China), where her research focused understanding how simultaneous exposure to synthetic estrogen and low oxygen conditions affects estuarine medaka (Japanese rice fish) development.

She earned her B.S. degree in biological sciences from Old Dominion University in Norfolk, Va.; her M.S. in biological oceanography from the University of Connecticut; and her doctorate in marine biosciences from the University of Delaware.