Former UGA Skidaway Institute executive director Jim Sanders retired last summer. Sanders led the institution from 2001 until 2016, when he stepped back from his executive directorship, but remained active in a faculty post. During his 15 years as director or executive director, Sanders guided Skidaway Institute through two recessions and the 2013 merger with the University of Georgia.
Sanders earned his bachelor’s degree in zoology from Duke University and followed it up with a master’s degree and doctorate in marine sciences from the University of North Carolina – Chapel Hill. His first exposure to Skidaway Institute came as a graduate student with Herb Windom in the 1970s.
Prior to his arrival in Savannah in 2001, Sanders was on the faculty and served as director of the Academy of Natural Sciences’ Estuarine Research Center in Maryland. He then was chairman of the Department of Ocean, Earth and Atmospheric Sciences at Old Dominion University in Virginia.
Sanders is known for his interests within the area of nutrient and trace element biogeochemistry, especially how trace elements are transported through coastal zones, transformed by chemical and biological reactions during transport, and how they influence growth and species composition of autotrophic organisms.
Sanders has been very active as a consultant to federal and state science agencies, and industrial groups in the U.S. and Europe. He is a member of numerous scientific societies, was president of the National Association of Marine Laboratories, and was a trustee and officer of the Consortium for Ocean Leadership. He is the author of over 75 scientific publications.
Shortly after taking the helm at Skidaway Institute, the nation was hit with an economic downturn sparked by the 9/11 terrorist attacks, and maintaining adequate funding for research and operations was a challenge.
“The most effective way to deal with it was to hire innovative and interdisciplinary faculty members who would come up with important research questions and then find funding to pursue those avenues,” Sanders said.
Looking back, Sanders said he has always been amazed at the extent to which Skidaway Institute fosters an interactive, collegial work experience.
“I have been at a number of other institutions, large and small, many with a similar focus on oceanography, but I have never felt the interconnections that Skidaway has offered, both to me and other staff, over the past 42 years,” Sanders said.
As Sanders looks back over his time at Skidaway, he is most proud for what he, the faculty and staff have done together.
“In the end, I measure my success through my colleagues and our interactions,” he said. “Really, my career has not been defined by the grants written, or the publications, or even the research that I have performed, but that I was in a position to help others achieve their goals, and perhaps even reach a bit higher in some cases.”
Sanders remains at the institute as a professor emeritus.
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