Morton serves as the Program Lead for the Phytoplankton Monitoring Network and the Hollings Marine Laboratory Advanced Microscopy and Microanalysis Core. He is a member of the Hollings Marine Laboratory Research Committee and a member of the South Florida Ecosystem Restoration Task Force.
He is currently a Research Oceanographer with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Harmful Algal Bloom Monitoring and Reference Branch located at the Hollings Marine Laboratory. Morton is the Principal Investigator of the NOAA Phytoplankton Monitoring Network (PMN), a citizen science program whose volunteers represent public and private schools, colleges and universities, Native American tribes, state and national parks, aquariums, civic groups, shellfish growers and other non-governmental organizations.
During his career, he has authored over 130 per reviewed manuscripts, serves on the editorial boards of three international journals. Steve recently co-edited “Harmful Algal Blooms: A Compendium Desk Reference” published by Wiley-Blackwell press. Morton has been awarded the NOAA Administrator’s Award in 2016, the United States Department of Commence Bronze Award in Research in 2007, 2008 and 2015.
Morton received his B.S and M.S. from Florida Institute of Technology in Biological Oceanography and his Ph.D. in Plant Biology from Southern Illinois University.