Dr. Scott Knoche is the Director of the Morgan State University Patuxent Environmental & Aquatic Research Laboratory (PEARL) - an interdisciplinary environmental research center located in southern Calvert County, 80 miles south of Morgan State’s main campus in Northeast Baltimore. As the Director of PEARL, Dr. Knoche leverages PEARL’s facilities, coastal location and a talented staff to further environmental research and education at Morgan State. PEARL environmental research is diverse across disciplines, with four major focus areas consisting of aquaculture, coastal ecology, biogeochemistry, and environmental economics. The unifying theme across these research areas is the emphasis on applied, management-relevant research for the benefit of societies and economies. Along with serving as PEARL Director, Dr. Knoche also leads PEARL’s environmental economics research program, which applies survey-based approaches to examine the economic implications of natural resource management decisions.