Steve Palumbi
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Stephen R. Palumbi (born October 17, 1956) is the Jane and Marshall Steel Jr. Professor in
Marine Science Oceanography (), also known as oceanology, sea science, ocean science, and marine science, is the scientific study of the ocean, including its physics, chemistry, biology, and geology. It is an Earth science, which covers a wide range of top ...
s at
Stanford University Leland Stanford Junior University, commonly referred to as Stanford University, is a Private university, private research university in Stanford, California, United States. It was founded in 1885 by railroad magnate Leland Stanford (the eighth ...
at
Hopkins Marine Station Hopkins Marine Station is the marine laboratory of Stanford University. It is located south of the university's main campus, in Pacific Grove, California (United States) on the Monterey Peninsula, adjacent to the Monterey Bay Aquarium. It is h ...
. He also holds a Senior Fellowship at the Stanford Woods Institute for the Environment.


Early life

Palumbi was born in
Baltimore, MD Baltimore is the most populous city in the U.S. state of Maryland. With a population of 585,708 at the 2020 census and estimated at 568,271 in 2024, it is the 30th-most populous U.S. city. The Baltimore metropolitan area is the 20th-larges ...
. He received his BA in
biology Biology is the scientific study of life and living organisms. It is a broad natural science that encompasses a wide range of fields and unifying principles that explain the structure, function, growth, History of life, origin, evolution, and ...
from the
Johns Hopkins University The Johns Hopkins University (often abbreviated as Johns Hopkins, Hopkins, or JHU) is a private university, private research university in Baltimore, Maryland, United States. Founded in 1876 based on the European research institution model, J ...
in 1978 and his
PhD A Doctor of Philosophy (PhD, DPhil; or ) is a terminal degree that usually denotes the highest level of academic achievement in a given discipline and is awarded following a course of graduate study and original research. The name of the deg ...
in
zoology Zoology ( , ) is the scientific study of animals. Its studies include the anatomy, structure, embryology, Biological classification, classification, Ethology, habits, and distribution of all animals, both living and extinction, extinct, and ...
from the
University of Washington The University of Washington (UW and informally U-Dub or U Dub) is a public research university in Seattle, Washington, United States. Founded in 1861, the University of Washington is one of the oldest universities on the West Coast of the Uni ...
in
marine ecology Marine ecosystems are the largest of Earth's aquatic ecosystems and exist in waters that have a high salt content. These systems contrast with freshwater ecosystems, which have a lower salt content. Marine waters cover more than 70% of the sur ...
in 1984. He received the Buell Award from the
Ecological Society of America The Ecological Society of America (ESA) is a professional organization of ecological scientists. Based in the United States and founded in 1915, ESA publications include peer-reviewed journals, newsletters, fact sheets, and teaching resources. I ...
in 1984.


Career

From 1985 to 1996, he worked in the Department of Zoology at the
University of Hawaii A university () is an educational institution, institution of tertiary education and research which awards academic degrees in several Discipline (academia), academic disciplines. ''University'' is derived from the Latin phrase , which roughly ...
, winning the Matsuda Fellowship Award for Faculty Research in 1991 and a University of Hawaii Regents Medal for Excellence in Research in 1996. He was promoted to
full professor Professor (commonly abbreviated as Prof.) is an academic rank at universities and other post-secondary education and research institutions in most countries. Literally, ''professor'' derives from Latin as a 'person who professes'. Professors ...
in 1994 and appointed the director of the Kewalo Marine Laboratory in 1995. Palumbi moved to a professorship at
Harvard University Harvard University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. Founded in 1636 and named for its first benefactor, the History of the Puritans in North America, Puritan clergyma ...
in 1996 and on to
Stanford University Leland Stanford Junior University, commonly referred to as Stanford University, is a Private university, private research university in Stanford, California, United States. It was founded in 1885 by railroad magnate Leland Stanford (the eighth ...
in August 2002. In 2007, he was appointed the Harold A. Miller Director of the
Hopkins Marine Station Hopkins Marine Station is the marine laboratory of Stanford University. It is located south of the university's main campus, in Pacific Grove, California (United States) on the Monterey Peninsula, adjacent to the Monterey Bay Aquarium. It is h ...
, and was appointed to the Jane and Marshall Steel Chair of Biology in 2009. In 1996, Palumbi was awarded a Pew Fellowship in Marine Conservation, which he used "to develop more rapid, cost-efficient, nonradioactive genetic test procedures to identify threatened species of cetaceans found in products taken from whale meat markets ... allow ngthe focus of management efforts to be the individual, rather than the species or stock, and enables the tracing of particular whales from fishery to market." In 2003, he was elected a Fellow of the
California Academy of Sciences The California Academy of Sciences is a research institute and natural history museum in San Francisco, San Francisco, California, that is among the largest List of natural history museums, museums of natural history in the world, housing over ...
and was awarded the Peter Benchley Ocean Award for Excellence in Science in 2011.


Research interests

Palumbi's research interests include studying evolution and change using
molecular genetics Molecular genetics is a branch of biology that addresses how differences in the structures or expression of DNA molecules manifests as variation among organisms. Molecular genetics often applies an "investigative approach" to determine the st ...
techniques, marine
population biology The term population biology has been used with different meanings. In 1971, Edward O. Wilson ''et al''. used the term in the sense of applying mathematical models to population genetics, community ecology, and population dynamics. Alan Hasting ...
and
conservation Conservation is the preservation or efficient use of resources, or the conservation of various quantities under physical laws. Conservation may also refer to: Environment and natural resources * Nature conservation, the protection and manage ...
, and the effects of human activity on ocean systems. Some of his well known work includes research on using genomic methods to identify species resilient to climate change, and using genetic approaches to identify species of conservation concern in wildlife markets.


Public engagement

In 2003, Palumbi participated in the documentary TV series ''
The Future Is Wild ''The Future Is Wild'' (also referred to by the acronym ''FIW'') is a 2002 speculative evolution docufiction miniseries and an accompanying multimedia entertainment franchise. ''The Future Is Wild'' explores the ecosystems and wildlife of three ...
'', appearing in his capacity as
Harvard University Harvard University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. Founded in 1636 and named for its first benefactor, the History of the Puritans in North America, Puritan clergyma ...
Professor of Marine Sciences in the initial episode,
Welcome to the Future A welcome is a kind of greeting designed to introduce a person to a new place or situation, and to make them feel at ease. The term can similarly be used to describe the feeling of being accepted on the part of the new person. Overview In s ...
, as well as in four other episodes where he was also credited as a principal scientific advisor:
Waterland Waterland () is a List of municipalities of the Netherlands, municipality in the Netherlands, in the Provinces of the Netherlands, province of North Holland. It is situated north of Amsterdam, on the western shore of the Markermeer. It includes t ...
,
Flooded World ''The Future Is Wild'' (also referred to by the acronym ''FIW'') is a 2002 speculative evolution docufiction miniseries and an accompanying multimedia entertainment franchise. ''The Future Is Wild'' explores the ecosystems and wildlife of three ...
,
The Endless Desert ''The Future Is Wild'' (also referred to by the acronym ''FIW'') is a 2002 speculative evolution docufiction miniseries and an accompanying multimedia entertainment franchise. ''The Future Is Wild'' explores the ecosystems and wildlife of three ...
, and
The Global Ocean ''The Future Is Wild'' (also referred to by the acronym ''FIW'') is a 2002 speculative evolution docufiction miniseries and an accompanying multimedia entertainment franchise. ''The Future Is Wild'' explores the ecosystems and wildlife of three ...
. The series explored possible evolutionary changes in the future over the period of five to two hundred million years, and was developed over a period of four years by a team of scientists whose work was visualised through
computer animation Computer animation is the process used for digitally generating Film, moving images. The more general term computer-generated imagery (CGI) encompasses both still images and moving images, while computer animation refers to moving images. Virtu ...
.


Publications

Palumbi has written several books: *The Evolution Explosion: How Humans Cause Rapid Evolutionary Change, 2002. *The Death and Life of Monterey Bay: A Story of Revival, 2011 (with Carolyn Sotka). *The Extreme Life of the Sea, 2014 (with Anthony R. Palumbi). He has also been an author of more than 200 scientific papers.


Personal life

Palumbi is married to a
physician A physician, medical practitioner (British English), medical doctor, or simply doctor is a health professional who practices medicine, which is concerned with promoting, maintaining or restoring health through the Medical education, study, Med ...
, Mary Roberts, and is the father to two grown children. His interests include music, and was part of the group who founded the band ''Sustainable Sole''.


References


External links

{{DEFAULTSORT:Palumbi, Stephen Living people 1956 births Scientists from Baltimore Johns Hopkins University alumni University of Washington alumni Stanford University faculty People associated with the California Academy of Sciences American male writers