Hunter Lenihan’s primary research interests lie in the fields of applied population and community ecology, especially in connection with human impacts, restoration, and management in marine ecosystems. He is studying ecological and oceanographic processes that regulate coral populations, particularly within the Moorea Coral Reef Long-Term Ecological Research (MCR-LTER) program, with the goal of developing new techniques for coral reef management and restoration. He collaborates with California fishing communities, and the Santa Barbara Coastal LTER (SBC-LTER), to design new forms of fisheries management, including the use of marine reserves in spatial management and community-based approaches. Lenihan also is a leader of the NSF-funded California Center for the Environmental Implications of Nanotechnology (CEIN), in part to help develop environmentally safe nanomaterials. In addition, Lenihan studies disease ecology, most recently with CA black abalone. He has done extensive research within estuaries, at deep-sea hydrothermal vents, and in polar environments. His overall objective is to generate new ideas and methods for marine resource management and train young scientists to be effective environmental problem solvers.