Fiorenza Micheli
David and Lucile Packard Professor of Marine Science, Professor of Oceans and Senior Fellow at the Woods Institute for the Environment
My research focuses on the processes and interactions shaping coastal marine communities and incorporating this understanding in the management and conservation of marine ecosystems. A primary focus of my research program has been in how disturbance and interactions between species underlie the organization, spatial variation, and temporal change in marine communities. In addition to addressing these basic ecological questions, my research seeks to apply community ecology to increase our understanding of human impacts on the marine environment and to design conservation and restoration strategies. Examples include quantifying the joint effects of fishing and climate change on marine ecosystems and incorporating our understanding of diversity patterns, species interactions, habitat-species linkages, and patterns of human use of natural resources in the design and evaluation of marine reserve networks and marine zoning. I am currently co-directing the Stanford Center for Ocean Solutions, with Jim Leape.
To date, I have authored or co-authored over 200 peer-reviewed publications. I have advised over 20 postdocs, over 20 PhD students and nearly 100 undergraduate students at Stanford University. Currently my group includes four postdoctoral researchers and six PhD students conducting research in California, Baja California, Palau, The Chagos and Italy, and additional fellows and interns at COS. I have given over 300 presentations at conferences, symposia and at academic institutions, including ~150 invited presentations and ten lectures as the keynote speaker in international conferences. I have obtained grants from the US National Science Foundation, Environmental Protection Agency, NOAA, National Geographic Society, and private foundations, including funding for three large multi-institutional and interdisciplinary projects from the NSF – Coupled Natural-Human Systems program. I am a fellow of the California Academy of Science and the Aldo Leopold Leadership Program, past president of the Western Society of Naturalists, a Pew Fellow in Marine Conservation.