Björn Kjerfve
| Björn Kjerfve | |
|---|---|
| Chancellor, American University of Sharjah | |
| Personal details | |
| Profession | Academic |
| Website | wmu |
Björn Kjerfve is a Swedish-American oceanographer, Chancellor of the American University of Sharjah and former President of the World Maritime University (Malmö, Sweden),. His publications have been collected by libraries worldwide.
Kjerfve was born and raised in Skövde, Sweden and immigrated to the United States in 1964 to study at Georgia Southern College where he earned a bachelor of arts in mathematics in 1968. He then continued his studies at the University of Washington in Seattle earning a master of science in oceanography in 1970, and a Ph.D. in Marine Sciences from Louisiana State University in 1973.
From 2000-2004, Kjerfve was the Director of the Marine Science Program at the University of South Carolina where he also served as a Professor of Marine and Geological Sciences from 1973-2004.
Kjerfve was a tenured professor and Dean of the College of Geosciences (2004-2009) at Texas A&M University. As Dean, he oversaw four academic departments, the Texas Sea Grant Program, and the Integrated Ocean Drilling Program (IODP) including the 475-foot IODP ocean sciences drilling vessel, DN JOIDES Resolution.
Kjerfve served in several visiting professor/scientist positions including Universidade Federal Fluminense (Departamento de Geoquímica), Niterói, RJ, Brazil, 1988-2003; Göteborgs Universitet (Oceanografiska Institutionen), Sweden, in 1996; Universidade de São Paulo (Instituto Oceanográfico & Centro Tecnológico de Hidráulica), São Paulo, SP, Brazil, in 1984 and in 1985; Universiti Sains Malaysia (School of Biological Sciences), Penang, Malaysia, in 1984, 1990, and 1992; Chulalongkorn University (Department of Marine Science), Bangkok, Thailand,in 1983; Stockholms Universitet (Institute of Marine Ecology), Askö and Stockholm, Sweden, the summers of 1981, 1982, and 1983; University of Sydney University, Coastal Studies Unit, Department of Geography, Sydney, NSW, Australia, 1979-1980.
During his professional career, Kjerfve has supervised to completion 14 Ph.D. dissertations and 24 M.S. theses, as well as serving on more than 50 Ph.D. and MS student committees, and teaching over 6,000 oceanography students. The Academia Brasileira de Ciências, the Brazilian Academy of Sciences, in 2012, elected him as a corresponding member.
Kjerfve joined WMU in 2009 and in 2014 was appointed Chancellor of the American University of Sharjah.
Kjerfve holds dual citizenship (USA and Sweden) and is a permanent resident of Brazil. He is married, has three daughters, and is fluent in English, Swedish, and Portuguese.
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