Editor’s note: A previous headline for this article incorrectly identified Thomas Miller as a University of Maryland professor. Miller is actually a professor at the University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science. UMCES is not affiliated with UMD and is an independent university within the public University System of Maryland. We regret this error.
The recipient of the 111th Admiral of the Chesapeake Bay award is University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science Professor Thomas Miller.
The lifetime achievement award is presented to an individual who has contributed to Chesapeake Bay conservation and restoration.
“Thomas Miller has dedicated his career to understanding and applying the best science available to support Maryland’s fisheries and the ecosystem,” said Gov. Wes Moore, who presented the award to Miller on Oct. 1. “His work has helped to bring together the cooperative crab fishery that we have today in the Chesapeake Bay.”
2025 marked the first year that the Maryland Department of Natural Resources opened public nominations for the award. The department implemented the new process to honor former Admiral of the Chesapeake Bay awardee Vincent Leggett, the founder of the Blacks of the Chesapeake Foundation and the organization’s CEO until his death in November 2024. Leggett uplifted the stories of Black watermen and women, including enslaved Africans and their descendants, who contributed to the region’s maritime and seafood industries.
A professor at the Chesapeake Biological Laboratory in Solomons, Maryland, since 19914, Miller has helped modernize the scientific understanding and management of the state’s recreational and commercial fisheries.
Miller has been involved in discussions to improve cooperation between Maryland and Virginia on the management of the Chesapeake Bay’s blue crab fishery by using scientific surveys and data.
“The studies and policy discussions developed by Professor Miller are informing how we manage changing conditions in the Bay caused by climate change and invasive predators,” Moore said. “His work will help ensure we have a sustainable long-term future for blue crabs as well as other culturally and economically important Chesapeake Bay species.”
In 2000 and 2001, Miller served on the Bi-State Blue Crab Advisory Committee, a collaborative effort between Maryland and Virginia.
He led meetings that built agreement that mounting fishing pressure could threaten blue crabs’ long-term viability in the Chesapeake Bay. The committee’s work resulted in the 2001 Action Plan calling for thresholds on the blue crab fisher across the Chesapeake Bay, which Maryland and Virginia continue to use to avert overfishing.
Miller’s Chesapeake Bay research has also informed approaches to managing key Bay species, including menhaden, dolphins, and blue crabs.
Through his scientific expertise, Miller has informed policymakers and found solutions to issues within the fisheries industry.
Miller now serves on the Scientific and Statistical Committee of the Mid-Atlantic Fishery Management Council. He is also a scientific advisor to several federal and state agencies.
The Admiral of the Chesapeake Bay award was instituted by former Maryland Gov. J. Millard Tawes in 1959. Since the award’s establishment, some years have seen multiple awardees, hence why Miller marks the recipient of the 111th Admiral of the Chesapeake Bay award.
