…soft spoken and humble, much loved and admired, devoted to education, deeply concerned with the health of and prospects for our natural world.
Dr. J. Stanley Cobb received the 2013 Distinguished Naturalist Award. Cobb, a retired URI professor, is a marine biologist and internationally recognized expert on lobsters. He distinguished himself as a teacher at the undergraduate and graduate level. He was an important figure in the development of Rhode Island’s marine resource management policy.
Educated at Groton School, Harvard (BA 1964, Biology) and the University of Rhode Island (Ph.D., Oceanography, 1970), Cobb joined the Zoology Department at URI in 1970 and stayed there for 35 years. He taught Marine Biology, served on committees, and did research. His scientific pursuits resulted in more than 75 papers, books, and articles, on topics from deep sea fish brains to the behavior of mute swans, but focused on lobster ecology and fisheries.
Cobb’s international work included 15 months of lobster research in West Australia; 2 ½ years in La Paz, Bolivia, where his wife ran a large community development program; also, leading Earthwatch research at the Barrier Reef of Belize, and six months in England preparing to write a book.
For about 10 years, Cobb consulted on issues of institutional development for coastal resource management, helping to start a successful, now 20-year-old institute at Prince of Songkla University (southern Thailand), and carrying out activities that resulted in important coastal resource management change in Indonesia, Philippines, Sri Lanka, and Ecuador. At URI, Cobb chaired the Biology Department for eight years. One of the largest department on campus, Biology welcomes 1,000 students a day to its courses, employs 20-30 faculty and full time researchers and about 40 part-time graduate assistants and adjunct faculty. As well as personnel and budget management, the job includes oversight of 3 buildings and a wide variety of scientific equipment and vehicles. Cobb started and, for ten years, coordinated an undergraduate degree program in Marine Biology that enrolls 300-350 students and includes a one-semester study abroad option in Bermuda.