Dr. Richard E. Dodge is Dean Emeritus of, and Professor at, the Nova Southeastern University Oceanographic Center (NSUOC). Dodge is also Executive Director of the Center's National Coral Reef Institute (NCRI), funded through NOAA and other sources, and devoted to providing management research outcomes on reef monitoring, assessment, and restoration.

Dr. Dodge is a recognized authority on coral reef ecosystems having conducted research throughout the Caribbean and elsewhere (Haiti, Saudi Arabia, Puerto Rico, Vieques, Barbados, Turks & Caicos, Jamaica, Virgin Islands, Bahamas, Dominican Republic, Panama, Cayman Islands, Bermuda, Cape Verde Islands, Sao Tome & Principe, Gulf of Guinea, Mexico, and Florida). Dodge has held grants and contracts from the National Science Foundation, Department of Energy, US Geological Survey, U.S. Navy, Florida Sea Grant, NOAA, EPA, South Florida Water Management District, Marine Spill Response Corporation, MMS, Office of Naval Research, State of Florida Dept. of Environmental Protection and Fish and Wildlife Commission, Broward Co, and the US Department of Justice.

He is the author of many publications in the scientific literature and various technical reports. His expertise is on the effects of natural and man-induced impacts to coral reefs and in assessing and analyzing effects from physical damage and pollution on coral reefs. This includes experience with effects to coral reef environments of sedimentation, military use, ship groundings, coastal construction, hydrocarbon pollution, and LNG development. His experience includes economic analysis and use of HEA (Habitat Equivalency Analysis).

Dodge has been a board member of the Marine Industries Association of South Florida (MIASF). He is past Editor of the international scientific journal Coral Reefs. He served for 5 years as a member of the Scientific Review Board of the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute to oversee a Minerals Management Service contract on oil spill effects to coral reefs. Dodge is a former member of the coral advisory committee for the Southeast Atlantic Fisheries Management Council and the Gulf of Mexico Fisheries Management Council. Dodge was Chair of the 11th International Coral Reef Symposium (largest coral reef conference in the world) held July, 2008 in Ft. Lauderdale Florida. Dodge is a board member and elected past Chair of SECOORA (Southeast Coastal Ocean Observing Regional Association), composed of ocean stakeholders from Florida, Georgia, and North and South Carolina. He was appointed by the Governor of Florida to the Gulf of Mexico Research Initiative Research Board, responsible for awarding $500M for oil spill research. He was recently the lead on a $15M grant from the Dept. of Commerce’s National Institute of Standards and Technology for new research facility construction at NSUOC. He was recently appointed by NOAA to provide advice on their RESTORE Act program.