cognition, culture, and society influence the interaction between people and the nonhuman environment, as well as who bears the impacts and responsibility for environmental problems. His research interest is focused on comparative study of cultural aspects of coastal use and dependence to reach more comprehensive understanding of human well-being and adaptations as they relate to the use of coastal environments and resources, including local knowledge, resource management, and adaptations to species translocations. Garcia-Quijano received a B.S. in biology and an M.S. in geology and reef paleoecology from the University of Puerto Rico, and a Ph.D. in ecological and environmental anthropology from the University of Georgia.

Peter Girguis is professor of organismic and evolutionary biology and co-director of the Microbial Sciences Initiative at Harvard University. He is also adjunct professor in the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution’s Applied Ocean Physics and Engineering group. Girguis is a microbiologist, biogeochemist, and technologist who studies how animals and microbes in the deep sea influence biogeochemical cycles. He is also known for developing novel “open-design” instruments, such as underwater mass spectrometers and microbial samplers, and strives to make these tools available to the broadest research community with the goal of democratizing science around the world. He was a National Science Foundation RIDGE-2000 distinguished lecturer, a Merck Co. Innovative Research Awardee, a recipient of the 2007 and 2011 Lindbergh Foundation Award for Science & Sustainability, the 2018 Lowell Thomas Award in Marine Science and Technology for groundbreaking advances, and the 2020 Petra Shattuck Award for Distinguished Teaching. He was recently named a Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation investigator. Girguis received a B.S. from the University of California, Los Angeles, and a Ph.D. from the University of California, Santa Barbara, and completed postdoctoral research at the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute. He is a member of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Ocean Exploration Advisory Board. He was previously a member of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine’s First Indian-American Frontiers of Science Symposium.

Leila J. Hamdan serves as associate vice president for research, coastal operations and director and professor in the School of Ocean Science and Engineering at the University of Southern Mississippi. Her research centers on marine microbial biogeography and exploring natural and human-made features on the seabed that shape coastal to deep-sea ecosystems. She is the lead on the National Science Foundation award for the operation of the future Regional Class Research Vessel Gilbert R. Mason and has been chief scientist on 25 oceanographic research expeditions. She is currently president of the Coastal and Estuarine Research Federation. She received the National Oceanographic Partnership Program Excellence in Partnering Award in 2017 for leadership of a team of scientists studying impacts of the Deepwater Horizon oil spill. Hamdan received a B.S. in biology from Rowan University of New Jersey and an M.S. and a Ph.D. from George Mason University and completed postdoctoral training at the Naval Research Laboratory.

Marcia J. Isakson is director of the Signal and Information Sciences Laboratory at Applied Research Laboratories at the University of Texas at Austin. She has expertise in undersea warfare and signal processing, and her research interests include ocean acoustic propagation and autonomous underwater vehicle sensors. She is a fellow and former president of the Acoustical Society of America. Isakson received her B.S. in engineering physics and mathematics from the United States Military Academy at West Point. Upon graduation, she was awarded a Hertz Foundation fellowship and completed an M.S. and a Ph.D. in physics from the University of Texas at Austin. She is a member of the Ocean Studies Board and a member of the U.S. National Committee for the Decade of Ocean Science for Sustainable Development.

Jason Link is senior scientist for ecosystems with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s National Marine Fisheries Service, leading efforts to support development of ecosystem-based management plans and activities throughout the agency. He has held many past adjunct positions and currently holds an adjunct faculty position at the School for Marine Science and Technology at the University of Massachusetts. His research interests include marine resource–ecosystem modeling methodologies, marine food web topology, globally consistent patterns in ecosystem cumulative biomass distributions, and delineation of ecosystem overfishing thresholds.

Link is a fellow of the American Institute of Fishery Research Biologists, was a Frohlich fellow, holds executive leadership certificates from the Harvard Kennedy School and the Key Program at American University, and has received the Fisheries Society of the British Isles Medal for significant advances in fisheries science and a Department of Commerce Bronze medal. He received his B.S. in biology from Central Michigan University and a Ph.D. in biological sciences from Michigan Technological University.

Allison Miller is research portfolio senior manager at Schmidt Ocean Institute. She is responsible for managing and overseeing all research projects undertaken by Schmidt Ocean Institute, including management of grants and contracts, and assuring accessibility of all data that are created and collected as part of those projects. Previously, she facilitated federal partnerships by managing the National Oceanographic Partnership Program, housed at the Consortium for Ocean Leadership. Miller serves as secretary of the Council of The Oceanography Society and serves on the external advisory committee of the University Corporation for Atmospheric Research Community Program. Miller received a B.S. in marine science from Coastal Carolina University and an M.S. in oceanography from Florida State University.

S. Bradley Moran is dean of the College of Fisheries and Ocean Sciences at the University of Alaska Fairbanks. Prior to his appointment as dean, he served as acting director of the Obama administration’s National Ocean Council, assistant director for ocean sciences in the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy, program director in the Chemical Oceanography Program at the National Science Foundation, and professor of oceanography in the Graduate School of Oceanography at the University of Rhode Island. His principal research interests focus on the application of uranium-series and artificial radionuclides as tracers of marine geochemical processes and fostering economic development partnerships in energy and environmental research, technology, policy, and education. He currently serves as vice president of the international Scientific Committee on Oceanic Research; on the board of directors of the Alaska Ocean Observing System, the Alaska Sea Life Center, and the North Pacific Research Board; and, previously, as board chair and trustee of the Consortium for Ocean Leadership. Moran received a B.Sc. in chemistry from Concordia University and a Ph.D. in oceanography from Dalhousie University. He previously served on the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine Ocean Studies Board and is currently an ex officio member of the Ocean Studies Board as a representative to the Scientific Committee on Oceanic Research, and he is a member of the U.S. National Committee for the Decade of Ocean Science for Sustainable Development.

Richard W. (Rick) Murray is deputy director and vice president for science and engineering at Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution. Prior to this role, he was professor of Earth and environment at Boston University from 1992 to 2019, and served as director for the Division of Ocean Sciences at the National Science Foundation from 2015 to 2018. Murray also served as co-chair for the Subcommittee on Ocean Science and Technology, as part of the Office of Science and Technology Policy in the Executive Office of the President, during both the Obama and Trump administrations. His research interests are in marine geochemistry, with an emphasis on sedimentary chemical records of climate change, volcanism, and tropical oceanographic processes, and in the chemistry of the subseafloor biosphere. Murray was involved in the advisory structure for the scientific ocean drilling programs throughout his career. He sailed on six different scientific drilling expeditions (127, 165, 175, 185, 329, and 346), including as co-chief scientist on Expedition 346. Murray is a former councilor of The Oceanography Society and a former member of the board of directors of the American Geophysical Union. Murray received a B.A. in geology from Hamilton College and a Ph.D. in geology and geophysics from the University of California, Berkeley. He also graduated from the Sea Education Association’s program at Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution and completed postdoctoral training at the University of Rhode Island’s Graduate School of Oceanography. Murray has testified before the U.S. Congress and the Massachusetts State Legislature on issues relating to climate change and ocean observations.

Stephen R. Palumbi is Jane and Marshall Steel Professor in Marine Sciences and senior fellow with the Woods Institute for the Environment at Stanford University. He is former director for Hopkins Marine Station at Stanford.

His research interests include the use of molecular genetics techniques to study evolution and change within marine populations. He has contributed to enhancing understanding of speciation patterns in open-ocean systems, providing insights for marine reserve design and refuges for thermally sensitive corals. He received the Peter Benchley Award for Excellence in Science and is an elected member of the National Academy of Sciences, fellow of the California Academy of Sciences, and Pew fellow in marine conservation. Palumbi has published three books on science for the general public, cofounded the microdocumentary series Short Attention Span Science Theater, and has appeared in numerous ocean documentaries. He received a B.A. in biology from Johns Hopkins University and a Ph.D. in zoology with a concentration in marine ecology from the University of Washington.

Ella (Josie) Quintrell recently retired as founding executive director of the Integrated Ocean Observing System (IOOS) Association and now serves as senior advisor to the organization. The IOOS Association works with the IOOS Regional Associations to design and operate coastal observing systems to collect, integrate, and produce information for users. Her research interests focus on operational observing issues related to harmful algal blooms, cloud computing, and coastal management. She previously served on the board of the Consortium for Ocean Leadership, the National Estuarine Research Reserve System Science Advisory Committee, and the National Marine Association of Marine Laboratories. Quintrell received a B.A. in biology from Colby College and an M.R.P. in environmental planning from Cornell University.

Yoshimi (Shimi) Rii is assistant specialist at Hawai‘i Institute of Marine Biology and also serves as research coordinator for the He‘eia National Estuarine Research Reserve within the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Office for Coastal Management. Her expertise is in marine ecology, with phytoplankton and nutrient dynamics in coastal and open-ocean environments. She utilizes multiple tools spanning geochemical tracers, biomarkers, and genomic approaches to examine metabolic activities and biodiversity of microbial eukaryotes. Her work encompasses research at the watershed to coastal ocean scale, examining the continuum and diversity of ecologically important species and processes in a diverse environmental setting. She is passionate about increasing diversity and equity, and promoting the inclusion of multiple ways of knowing, including Indigenous knowledge, within conventional science within the academy. Rii received a B.S. in marine biology and English from the University of California, Los Angeles, and an M.S. and a Ph.D. in biological oceanography from the University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa.

Kristen St. John is professor of geology at James Madison University. Her research focuses on marine sediment records of past climate change and on teaching and learning in the geosciences. As an active researcher in the International Ocean Discovery Program (IODP) and legacy programs, she participated as a marine sedimentologist for several expeditions; is serving as co-chief scientist for Expedition 403, scheduled in summer 2024 on the JOIDES Resolution; and is a coproponent on an active IODP proposal for scientific drilling in the Arctic Ocean for consideration by the European Consortium for Ocean Research Drilling. She is president of the American Geophysical Union Education Section and fellow of the Geological Society of America, and was editor-in-chief of the Journal of Geoscience Education from 2012 to 2017. St. John received an M.S. and a Ph.D. in geoscience from Ohio State University. She currently serves on the Polar Research Board and previously chaired the Workshop on Tipping Points, Cascading Impacts, and Interacting Risks in the Earth System and was a member of the Committee on Advancing a Systems Approach to Studying the Earth: A Strategy for the National Science Foundation. She served on the workshop steering committee and as co-author of the report for the NEXT: Scientific Ocean Drilling Beyond 2023.

Samuel K. (Kersey) Sturdivant is principal scientist at INSPIRE Environmental; adjunct assistant professor at Duke University; and cofounder of Oceanography for Everyone, an open-source effort to develop low-cost oceanographic hardware. His research interests center broadly around the effects of human disturbance on the seafloor and development of marine technology to enhance human understanding of the ocean. Sturdivant gave a TED talk, “Visualize the Seafloor” and published a comprehensive step-by-step guide on how to get into graduate school in the sciences with Cambridge University Press. Sturdivant received a B.S. in environmental science from

the University of Maryland Eastern Shore and a Ph.D. in marine science from the College of William & Mary’s Virginia Institute of Marine Science.

Ajit Subramaniam is research professor at the Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory (LDEO) of Columbia University. He has served as program director for the Marine Microbiology Initiative at the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation and as program director in the Biological Oceanography Program at the National Science Foundation while on leave from LDEO. Subramaniam is a microbial oceanographer with expertise in biogeochemical cycles, remote sensing, bio-optics, and phytoplankton physiology. His research interests focus on advancing the ability to observe the ocean and expand understanding on how the marine ecosystem works and can be managed. He was awarded a Mercator fellowship by the University of Rostock and the Baltic Sea Research Institute, Germany, in 2017 and the Climate and Life fellowship at Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory in 2021. Subramaniam received a B.S. in physics from the American College in India, and an M.S. in marine environmental science and a Ph.D. in coastal oceanography from the State University of New York at Stony Brook.

Maya Tolstoy is Maggie Walker Dean of the University of Washington College of the Environment. Prior to this role, Tolstoy she was professor at Columbia University’s Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences at Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory, and previously served as interim executive vice president and dean of the faculty of Arts and Sciences at Columbia. She is a marine geophysicist specializing in seafloor earthquakes and volcanoes. Over her more than 30-year career as a researcher, professor, and administrator, Tolstoy has dedicated herself to furthering understanding of the fundamental processes of the planet and advancing diversity, equity, and inclusion in academia. Tolstoy was awarded the Wings Worldquest Sea Award honoring women in exploration and was a finalist for the National Aeronautics and Space Administration’s 2009 Astronaut selection. Tolstoy received a B.S. in geophysics from the University of Edinburgh and a Ph.D. from Scripps Institution of Oceanography at the University of California, San Diego. She previously served on the National Academies’ Board on Earth Sciences and Resources’ Committee on Solid Earth Geophysics.

Shannon Valley is climate advisor with Vistant, contracted to the U.S. Agency for International Development’s Center for Climate Positive Development. Prior to this role, she served as legislative liaison at Headquarters for the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) and as policy assistant in the White House Domestic Policy Council, and was appointed to the 2020 Presidential Transition NASA Agency Review team. Her past research focused on Atlantic meridional overturning circulation variability and its relation to abrupt and long-term climate change. She is a recipient of the NASA Individual Special Act Award, the NASA Exceptional Achievement Medal, and the National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship. Valley received a B.A. in political science and international studies from Northwestern University and an M.S. and a Ph.D. in Earth and atmospheric science from the Georgia Institute of Technology. She completed postdoctoral research in paleoceanography and coastal geochemistry, working with marsh sediment cores at Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution.

James Zachos is distinguished professor of Earth and planetary sciences and Ida Benson Lynn Chair of Ocean Health at the University of California, Santa Cruz. His research focuses on resolving aspects of the ocean, climate, and carbon-cycle dynamics of the last 65 million years, addressing issues ranging from the causes of extreme greenhouse warming and ocean acidification to the onset of Antarctic glaciation. His past research included participation in the scientific ocean drilling program. He is a member of both the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and the National Academy of Sciences and is a fellow of the American Geophysical Union (AGU), the Geological Society of America, and the American Association for the Advancement of Science. He is also a recipient of the AGU Emiliani Award, the European Geophysical Union Milutin Milankovic Medal, and the BBVA Frontiers of Knowledge award. Zachos received a B.S. in geology/economics from the State University of New York at Oneonta, an M.S. in geology from the University of South Carolina, and a Ph.D. from the Graduate School of Oceanography at the University of Rhode Island. He completed a postdoctoral fellowship at the University of Michigan.