Dr. Schubel has been President and CEO of the Aquarium of the Pacific since 2002. He is President and CEO Emeritus of the New England Aquarium, and from 1974-1994 was Dean of Stony Brook University’s Marine Sciences Research Center. For three of those years he served as The University’s provost. He is Distinguished Service Professor emeritus. Prior to 1974, Dr. Schubel was an adjunct professor, research scientist and Associate Director of The Johns Hopkins University's Chesapeake Bay Institute.

Schubel has worked throughout his professional life at the interfaces of science-management-policy on issues dealing with the ocean. He has published more than 225 scientific papers and has written extensively for general audiences. He wrote a monthly column on the environment for Long Beach Magazine. He is a member of NOAA Science Advisory Board and is a member of the Science Advisory Panel for California’s Ocean Protection Council. He chaired the National Sea Grant Review Panel; the National Research Council’s Marine Board; and the Ocean Research and Resources Advisory Panel (ORRAP), the only Federal Advisory Committee Act (FACA) advising federal agencies with ocean mandates. He has served on numerous NRC committees, is a former member of EPA’s Science Advisory Board, the Census of Marine Life U.S. National Committee and the National Science Foundation’s Education and Human Resources Advisory Committee.

At the Aquarium of the Pacific, he created the Aquatic Forum that brings together scientists, policy-makers and stakeholders to explore alternative ways of dealing with some of California’s important, complex, and often controversial environmental issues. He also directs the Aquarium’s Marine Conservation Research Institute.

Dr. Schubel holds a Bachelor of Science degree from Alma College, Michigan; a Masters degree from Harvard University; and a Ph.D. in oceanography from Johns Hopkins University. He received an honorary doctorate from the Massachusetts Maritime Academy in 1998.