Wayne Litaker is a North Carolina native with graduate degrees in Resource Ecology from the University of Michigan and Botany from Duke University in addition to postdoctoral training in Immunology and Molecular Biology at the UNC School of Medicine. Wayne worked in the program in Molecular Biology and Biotechnology at the UNC School of Medicine for a number of years before joining NOAA’s Center for Coastal Fisheries and Habitat Research as a Research Biologist in 2002. His current research centers on the molecular ecology and taxonomy of harmful algal bloom species (HABs) and related protozoan fish parasites with an emphasis on providing detection methods and models that can be used to help mitigate the harmful effects of these organisms. Since joining NOAA Wayne has bee the recipient of the Phycological Society of America’s Provasoli Award and NOAA’s Administrators Award. He has been a Smithsonian Associate since 2004.