The Smithsonian Environmental Research Center in Edgewater recently named William “Monty” Graham its new director. The move comes as the Trump administration makes wholesale changes to climate initiatives.

Covering nearly 3,000 acres, the center, known as SERC, studies the Rhode River Watershed, how it flows into the Chesapeake Bay, and how the bay flows into the Atlantic Ocean. The varied environments are what make the center’s location important; scientists can see the changes from forest, to farmland, to fishing waters, to the open ocean.

“That’s the specialness of the place for scientists is that you can understand a whole set of watershed issues or problems or questions and start answering them using rigorous science,” Graham said. “It’s taking those [findings] and applying them to big global problems, big global questions that we have.”

A native of Danville, Kentucky, Graham has lived all over the country. His father, an airline pilot, brought the family to New England, where he spent part of his childhood. His interest in marine biology was sparked by a trip to the Boston Aquarium, and he keeps his souvenir, a box of shells, with him to this day to remind him why he became interested in the field.

Studying marine biology and oceanography, he received his bachelor’s from the University of North Carolina, Wilmington, and his master’s and doctorate degrees from the University of California, Santa Cruz. He’s familiar with Anne Arundel County, too — his son is a Naval Academy graduate.

Graham, who has almost 30 years of experience in the field and is expected to start in Edgewater next month, is leaving his post as director of the Florida Institute of Oceanography at the University of South Florida. That organization works with dozens of public and private institutions to “enable excellence in coastal and ocean science and education,” according to its website. Graham plans to do the same in Edgewater.

“I think one of my skill sets that I’m very good at is building partnerships, whether they’re within the Smithsonian or partnerships with other academic research entities or agencies or even extending into the private sector and building partnerships [there],” he said.”I think everybody has to be at the table to answer some of these big questions.”

Asked about the changes to climate policy the Trump administration is making, Graham declined to answer.

Ongoing projects at SERC include experimental forest plots, which study tree growth rates under different conditions, as well as MarineGEO, which looks at concentrations of aquatic species around the planet.

When asked for comment regarding potential federal funding cuts, a SERC representative gave no comment.

“The thing that really drives me is the harder and the more complex the problem is, the more fun I have with it,” he said. “And so, I’m going in, learning a whole lot about a bunch of different interests that are going on at SERC, and then trying to distill from that a theme, a storyline.”

“So that, to me, is going to be my initial period of discovery,” he said. “And that’s what scientists love, right? They love discovery.”

Have a news tip? Contact Benjamin Rothstein at brothstein@baltsun.com, 443-928-1926.