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Luiz Barbieri

Luiz Barbieri, Researcher Department Marine Fisheries Research Location St. Petersburg

Degrees / Certifications

B.S. in Biology, Santa Ursula University, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, 1981
M.S. in Biological Oceanography, Rio Grande University, Brazil, 1986
Ph.D. in Marine Science, The College of William and Mary, VIMS, 1993

Education / Experience

After graduating from college, I worked for a couple of years as a schoolteacher and then moved to the southernmost state in Brazil to pursue graduate education. Since my graduate advisor had done his Ph.D. work in the U.S., he strongly encouraged me to come here and attend the same graduate school—Virginia Institute of Marine Science of The College of William and Mary in Williamsburg, VA. My Ph.D. work focused on the life history and population dynamics of fishes and the application of this information to the management of marine fisheries. After graduation, I accepted a post-doctoral position at the University of Georgia Marine Institute, where I stayed for a few years as part of the research faculty. I started working for FWRI’s Marine Fisheries Research group in 1997. As a Research Administrator at the Tequesta Field Lab, I studied reef fisheries along the southeast coast of Florida. I was promoted to Senior Research Scientist in 1999, and I moved to St. Petersburg to lead the Finfish Fisheries Biology research group. This past July, I was promoted to Program Administrator and became the head of our Marine Fisheries Research section.

Recent Projects / Interview Body

What are you working on now?

My job is primarily administrative; I oversee FWRI’s Marine Fisheries Research section, a $15 million program centered in St. Petersburg but distributed in seven field labs around the state.

Was work in your current field your original career interest; why or why not?

Like so many other people, I was influenced by Jacques Cousteau’s fascinating documentaries; when I was a teenager, his work got me thinking about a career as a marine biologist. However, it wasn’t until, as an undergraduate in Biology, I did an internship in an ichthyology lab that I got the “fish bug” and decided that I would pursue a career in marine fisheries.

What would you say is your biggest accomplishment?

My greatest accomplishment is playing a big part in bringing two wonderful human beings to this world (Elena and Gabe Barbieri), and helping turn them into happy and well balanced individuals. Nothing I ever do professionally or otherwise will get even close to that.

What do you like most about your career?

I like feeling that I play a part, however small, in helping protect our natural resources.

What do you like least about your career?

Often, no matter how hard we work to present the best available science to all of the right people, bad, sometimes irreversible, management decisions are still made.

What are some of your biggest challenges?

Conducting management-oriented marine fisheries research in Florida is a challenge in itself—a huge number of species, a variety of commercial and recreational fisheries, and a huge influx of out-of-state recreational anglers. Allocating our limited resources to address the most critical data needs is, perhaps, the biggest challenge.

What advice would you give to someone interested in pursuing a career in your field?

First, make sure you believe in what you will be doing and that you get a lot of satisfaction out of it. You don’t get into this field for the money; salaries are not really competitive with other professional careers. Second, but just as important, concentrate on your education. With more and more people pursuing careers in marine science, you’ll need to make sure you have a strong and diversified educational background. With rare exceptions, graduate education is a must.