Bruce E. Taggart, Ph.D. (3PX2)
Dr. Taggart currently serves as the Assistant Director of the USGS Leetown Science Center in West Virginia, where he provides day-to-day coordination and program guidance to the Center and its 6 component facilities in conducting research to provide information needed to restore, enhance, maintain, and protect fish and other important aquatic and terrestrial organisms and their supporting ecosystems. He is also responsible for maintaining communications between the Center and other research and operational offices of the USGS to assure a coordinated and integrated effort to identify and solve problems, and to provide expert technical support to meet Department of the Interior bureau information needs and assist other natural resource partners. (3PX3)
From 1997 to 2005, Dr. Taggart served as Chief of the Surface-Water Studies Section for the USGS Massachusetts-Rhode Island Water Science Center where he was responsible for the day-to-day supervision of as few as 11 and as many as 21 scientists and technical staff working on scientific projects at the local, regional, and national levels. He also served as the Acting Chief of the Hydrologic Data Section and Acting Chief of the Publications Section during this time. As a member of the MA-RI District Senior Staff he was directly involved in District strategic planning, budget issues, program development, project management, and technical program reviews. (3PX4)
From 1992 to 1997, Dr. Taggart was the Reports Specialist and Information Management Section Chief for the USGS Caribbean Water Science Center conducting editorial/technical reviews of Center publications and supervising/managing the Report, Computer, and Geographic Information Systems Units. Dr. Taggart also served as a Research Scientist in the USGS Research Grade Evaluation Program in geomorphology (1994 through 1996). He served as a member of the Puerto Rico Council of Higher Education Evaluation Team tasked with the re-licensing evaluation of the University of Puerto Rico Mayagüez Campus (1996 through 1997). He currently facilitates Leadership Intensive courses on behalf of the USGS Leadership Development Program. (3PX5)
Dr. Taggart earned a bachelor’s degree in Geology in 1980 and a master’s degree in Geology (Coastal Geology) in 1984 from Western Washington University. He completed his master’s degree research on long-term sediment transport along the coast in Kitsap County in Puget Sound. He was awarded a doctorate in Marine Sciences (Geology) from the University of Puerto Rico (Mayagüez) in 1993, where he completed his doctoral research on a study of tectonic uplift and Quaternary sea-level fluctuations in northwestern Puerto Rico (1985-92). (3PX6)
Before joining the USGS in March 1992, Dr. Taggart worked as a consulting coastal geologist in Washington State and Puerto Rico, a soils geologist in Washington State, and a geologic field assistant in Alaska. He served in the U.S. Navy as a Quartermaster from 1973 to 1977. (3PX7)