Nancy Rabalais

Nancy Rabalais is a Professor and Shell Endowed Chair in the Department of Oceanography and Coastal Sciences at Louisiana State University. Her research interests include the dynamics of hypoxic environments, interactions of large rivers with the coastal ocean, estuarine and coastal eutrophication, benthic ecology, fate and effects of contaminants, and science policy. She is an author of 3 books, 33 book chapters, and over 120 peer-reviewed publications. She earned her Ph.D. in Zoology from The University of Texas at Austin in 1983. She is active in state and national working groups, panels, and advisory boards. She currently serves on the University-National Oceanographic Laboratories Fleet Improvement Committee, Board of Directors of the Gulf of Mexico Coastal Ocean Observing System, and Executive Committee of the National Association of Marine Laboratories. She has served on eight National Research Committees for the National Academies and is a past member and chair of the Ocean Studies Board. Dr. Rabalais is an American Association for the Advancement of Science Fellow, an American Geophysical Union Fellow, an Aldo Leopold Leadership Program Fellow, and a National Associate of the National Academies of Science. She was awarded the Clarke Prize of the National Water Resources Institute, the Ruth Patrick Award of the American Society of Limnology and Oceanography, the B. K. Ketchum award from Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, the Blasker Award for Environmental Science and Engineering, shared with R. E. Turner, a Rachel Carson Lectureship for the American Geophysical Union, the Benchley award, the Heinz award, and in 2012 was named a MacArthur Fellow.

Animal/sediment relationships; pelagic-benthic coupling, Biological oceanography-continental shelf ecosystems influenced by large rivers; land ocean interactions, Coastal eutrophication; distribution, dynamics and effects of hypoxia, Integration of science and policy, Multiple stressors on ecosystems