Nancy Rabalais
   HOME

TheInfoList



OR:

Nancy Nash Rabalais is an American marine ecologist. Born in Wichita Falls, Texas, she is the daughter of Kathryn Charlotte Preusch and Stephen Anthony Nash, a mechanical engineer, and the second of four children. She researches dead zones in the marine environment and is an expert in
eutrophication Eutrophication is the process by which an entire body of water, or parts of it, becomes progressively enriched with minerals and nutrients, particularly nitrogen and phosphorus. It has also been defined as "nutrient-induced increase in phytopla ...
and
nutrient pollution Nutrient pollution, a form of water pollution, refers to contamination by excessive inputs of nutrients. It is a primary cause of eutrophication of surface waters (lakes, rivers and coastal waters), in which excess nutrients, usually nitrogen or ...
.


Biography

Rabalais earned her B.S. in 1972 and her M.S. in 1975 from
Texas A&M University–Kingsville Texas A&M University–Kingsville is a Public university, public research university in Kingsville, Texas. It is the southernmost campus of the Texas A&M University System. The university developed the nation's first doctoral degree in bilingual ...
. Rabalais worked at Padre Island National Seashore in 1975 and began as a research assistant at the University of Texas Marine Science Institute, Port Aransas Marine Laboratory for 4 years. She began further graduate studies in 1979, working towards her Ph.D., where she studied fiddler crabs endemic to South Texas. She received her Ph.D. in Zoology from the University of Texas at Austin in 1983. Since 1985, Rabalais has studied the
Gulf of Mexico The Gulf of Mexico ( es, Golfo de México) is an oceanic basin, ocean basin and a marginal sea of the Atlantic Ocean, largely surrounded by the North American continent. It is bounded on the northeast, north and northwest by the Gulf Coast of ...
's dead zone off the coast of Louisiana, the largest
hypoxic Hypoxia means a lower than normal level of oxygen, and may refer to: Reduced or insufficient oxygen * Hypoxia (environmental), abnormally low oxygen content of the specific environment * Hypoxia (medical), abnormally low level of oxygen in the tis ...
zone in the United States. Along with two other researchers, she linked hypoxic zones in the Gulf with Mississippi River estuaries in 1985 through ocean mapping oxygen levels. This work was highlighted on the covers of BioScience in 1991 and Nature in 1994. She joined the
Louisiana Universities Marine Consortium RV ''Pelican'' was built in 1985 as an oceanographic research vessel and is operated by the Louisiana Universities Marine Consortium (LUMCON). The vessel has four laboratories and can support 16 scientists for periods up to three weeks. In M ...
(LUMCON) in 1983 and, with funding from the
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (abbreviated as NOAA ) is an United States scientific and regulatory agency within the United States Department of Commerce that forecasts weather, monitors oceanic and atmospheric conditio ...
(NOAA), identified a substantial hypoxic zone that had been affecting shrimpers. Rabalais has testified to Congress on the problem of nutrient pollution from agricultural and storm water runoff. She was the president of the nonprofit Coastal and Estuarine Research Federation from 1997 to 1999. She referred to the 2010 ''Deepwater Horizon'' oil spill as an "oilmageddon". She was the executive director of LUMCON from 2005-2016, where she was also a professor. She became a Professor/Shell Endowed Chair in Oceanography and Coastal Studies, Louisiana State University, in 2016, where she is still employed. She leads annual research surveys to determine the size of the dead zone. She is also director of the Coastal Waters Consortium. She has chaired the Ocean Studies Board of the
National Research Council National Research Council may refer to: * National Research Council (Canada), sponsoring research and development * National Research Council (Italy), scientific and technological research, Rome * National Research Council (United States), part of ...
. Rabalais was the recipient of an NOAA Environmental Hero Award and Aldo Leopold Leadership Program Fellowship in 1999, the 17th Annual
Heinz Award The Heinz Awards are individual achievement honors given annually by the Heinz Family Foundation. The Heinz Awards each year recognize outstanding individuals for their innovative contributions in three areas: the Arts, the Economy and the Enviro ...
(with special focus on the environment) in 2011 and
MacArthur Fellowship The MacArthur Fellows Program, also known as the MacArthur Fellowship and commonly but unofficially known as the "Genius Grant", is a prize awarded annually by the MacArthur Foundation, John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation typically to ...
in 2012. Rabalais was elected to the National Academy of Sciences in 2021. In 2012, she and several colleagues started the Coastal Waters Consortium, which focused on the effects of the BP oil spill on the Gulf of Mexico’s ecosystems and food webs within. Rabalais has been published in the journals ''Biogeosciences'', ''
BioScience ''BioScience'' is a monthly peer-reviewed scientific journal that is published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the American Institute of Biological Sciences. It was established in 1964 and was preceded by the ''AIBS Bulletin'' (1951–19 ...
'', ''
Nature Nature, in the broadest sense, is the physics, physical world or universe. "Nature" can refer to the phenomenon, phenomena of the physical world, and also to life in general. The study of nature is a large, if not the only, part of science. ...
'', and ''
Science Science is a systematic endeavor that builds and organizes knowledge in the form of testable explanations and predictions about the universe. Science may be as old as the human species, and some of the earliest archeological evidence for ...
''. She is married to R. Eugene Turner, an LSU colleague whom she has published work with before, including their book ''Coastal Hypoxia: Consequences for Living Resources and Ecosystems''. His work focuses inshore, while hers is in the waters of the Gulf. They have a daughter, Emily.


Awards

* Rachel Carson Award Lecture,
American Geophysical Union The American Geophysical Union (AGU) is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization of Earth, atmospheric, ocean, hydrologic, space, and planetary scientists and enthusiasts that according to their website includes 130,000 people (not members). AGU's act ...
(2012)


References


External links


Hypoxia in the Northern Gulf of Mexico
{{DEFAULTSORT:Rabalais, Nancy Living people American marine biologists American women scientists MacArthur Fellows Texas A&M University–Kingsville alumni University of Texas at Austin alumni Year of birth missing (living people) Members of the United States National Academy of Sciences 21st-century American women