James Carton Appointed Director of University System of Maryland’s Marine Estuarine Environmental Sciences Graduate Program
Carton previously served 11 years as chair of the Department of Atmospheric and Oceanic Science.
James Carton has been appointed the Robert E. Menzer Director of the University System of Maryland’s (USM) interdisciplinary Marine Estuarine Environmental Sciences (MEES) Graduate Program, effective July 1, 2026. Carton is a professor in the Department of Atmospheric and Oceanic Science (AOSC) who holds a joint appointment in the Earth System Science Interdisciplinary Center and is a faculty member in the Applied Mathematics & Statistics, and Scientific Computation graduate program at the University of Maryland, College Park (UMCP).
“Professor Carton brings a valuable combination of scientific distinction, administrative leadership and dedication to student success to this role,” said Amitabh Varshney, dean of the College of Computer, Mathematical, and Natural Sciences at UMCP. “MEES is a distinctive program, and I am confident that under his leadership it will continue to grow its impact across the University System of Maryland and beyond.”
The MEES program is one of the largest environmental graduate programs in the USM with around 80 students. Headquartered on the UMCP campus, MEES is offered jointly with the University of Maryland, Baltimore; the University of Maryland, Baltimore County; the University of Maryland Eastern Shore; and the University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science (UMCES).
Founded in 1978, the MEES program confers master’s and doctoral degrees in the environmental sciences with a focus on one of four interdisciplinary foundational areas: environment, health and society; Earth and ocean science; ecological systems; and environmental molecular science and technology. The MEES program has conferred more than 1,000 graduate degrees over the past four decades.
“The interdisciplinary approach of MEES is the cutting edge of environmental science,” Carton said. “I'm delighted to contribute to that and help grow academic collaborations at the partner universities.”
MEES’s 100 faculty members hail from the system institutions and UMCES laboratories, including Horn Point Laboratory, Chesapeake Biological Laboratory, Appalachian Laboratory, and the Institute of Marine and Environmental Technology (IMET). Scientists from NASA, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, the Smithsonian Institution, the U.S. Geological Survey, and other federal research agencies also mentor students in the program.
“I also look forward to working with the amazing staff members at MEES—Tammy Hendershot, Hang Nguyen and Valeriel Bonhomme—who make this such a welcoming place for our students and faculty and ensure all of our administrative processes run smoothly,” Carton said.
Carton joined UMCP in 1985 as an assistant professor and served as AOSC associate chair from 2001 to 2007 and as chair from 2007 to 2018. Since 1990, he has been an adjunct professor at Horn Point Laboratory.
A Fellow of the American Meteorological Society and a physical oceanographer, Carton is interested in the ocean’s role in climate. He uses computer models and observations to elucidate the ocean's role in climate variability and change. More specifically, he studies tropical climate, El Niño and the Southern Oscillation, North Pacific and polar climate variability, and anthropogenic climate change. He has authored more than 125 publications, and his works have been cited more than 11,000 times.
During his tenure as department chair, the department created new bachelor’s degree and professional master’s degree programs and expanded its existing graduate program. Under Carton’s leadership, the department also expanded its research collaborations and broadened its research portfolio through faculty hiring in areas at the forefront of climate research, including hydrology, cryospheric science and data assimilation.
He earned his Ph.D. and M.A. in atmospheric and oceanic sciences from Princeton University, M.S. in oceanography from the University of Washington, and B.S.E. in electrical engineering from Princeton University.
Carton succeeds Timothy Canty, who served as MEES director since 2019. As director, Canty improved administrative processes, filled vacant staff positions and increased the involvement of faculty members from all of the USM institutions. He led efforts to streamline the admissions process, recruit outstanding students, and develop new policies and guidelines that address confusion and resolve issues for students and faculty members related to MEES being a multi-institutional program. He also supported the creation of a MEES Graduate Student Organization, which aims to build a stronger community amongst the students and enhance communication between students and the MEES leadership team. During Canty’s tenure, Sara Lee Menzer (B.S. ’60, M.Ed. ’66, elementary education) established the Robert E. Menzer Endowed Operating Fund in MEES in memory of her late husband Robert (M.S. ’62, entomology), who was the founder and inaugural director of MEES, to support the program in perpetuity.
