WELLS — Dr. Jason Goldstein is the new research director at the Wells National Estuarine Research Reserve. Goldstein will oversee the Wells Reserve’s fish studies, salt marsh restoration activities and long-term environmental monitoring program. He intends to expand the reserve’s shellfish program, currently focused on green crab research, into lobster and Jonah crab ecology. Goldstein was selected after a national search and started at the reserve in June.

“Science is the heart of what we do at the Wells Reserve,” said Paul Dest, the reserve’s director. “Jason has experience in marine and estuarine systems, enthusiasm for new technology and an understanding of the challenges facing resource managers in and around the Gulf of Maine. He will be a great asset to our research program and in our communities.”

Goldstein holds a doctorate in zoology from the University of New Hampshire, a master’s in marine ecology from Old Dominion University, and a bachelor’s in biology from the University of Massachusetts. He was a Fulbright post-doctoral fellow at the University of Haifa in Israel. Goldstein has research affiliations at the University of New Hampshire and York County Community College.

Goldstein follows Drs. Michele Dionne and Kristin Wilson as the reserve’s third research director since the science program was founded in 1991. The Wells Reserve, one of 28 estuarine reserves across the country, was designated in 1984. Its vision is for resilient estuaries and coastal watersheds where human and natural communities thrive.