Seminars

WiSE/Rosenberg Institute Seminar at EOS Center - Drew Harvell

The Barbara and Richard Rosenberg Institute for Marine Biology & Environmental Science and WiSE (Women in Science & Engineering) present our seminar and student lunch (see below)

Drew Harvell, Adjunct Faculty, Stanford (Hopkins Researcher); Professor Emerita, Cornell University/Stanford University   

The Ocean’s Menagerie Heating up with Climate Change 

Abstract: Climate warming heats up the web of biological interactions and accelerates community change from the base and top of oceanic food chains. Warming oceans have fueled the decade long epidemic of sea star wasting disease, causing a top-down trophic cascade and massive changes to near-shore kelps from California to British Columbia. Our recent work unveils Vibrio pectenicida as a causative agent of sea star wasting disease and the decline of the sunflower star to endangerment.  Our 12 year study of eelgrass-protist dynamics also shows a role for warming events in large decline of seagrasses. Continental scale surveys reveal that the protist L. zosterae is a damaging pathogen, characterized by diverse strains varying in virulence and likely temperature sensitivity, from San Diego to Alaska. New work highlights multiple modes of disease transmission from waterborne to herbivore- facilitated.

Bio: Drew Harvell is Professor Emerita of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology at Cornell University and former Science Envoy for Ocean Conservation (US State Dept). Her research on the health and sustainability of marine ecosystems has taken her from the coral reefs of Mexico, Indonesia, Palau, Australia and Hawaii to the cold waters of the Pacific Northwest. Her current research, based at Friday Harbor Laboratories focuses on continental scale impact of ocean epidemics. She is a Fellow of the Ecological Society of America and the American Association for Advancement of Science. Her award-winning books include: A Sea of Glass (2016), Ocean Outbreak (2019) and The Ocean’s Menagerie (2025). 

Drew Harvell

Student Lunch

Students from EOS Center and main campus are invited to join Dr. Harvell for lunch at the Bay Conference Center, Romberg Tiburon Campus at noon. 

If interested, please email Dorhkas Ramos, dramos13@mail.sfsu.edu, by October 20 to reserve your spot.

 

Sea star image Neil McDaniel. 

Fall 2025 Seminar Series Schedule

Rosenberg Institute Seminar Series at EOS Center - Ed Carpenter

Ed Carpenter, Professor of Biology, EOS Center, SFSU

Plastic Earth: A Ticking Time Bomb

Abstract: Micro-plastics now pervade all habitats on Earth. Because these particles pick up toxins, they are a threat to ecosystem and Human health. The seminar will cover history of plastic production, distribution in the oceans and on land and possible effects. Also covered are ways to reduce our use of plastics.

Bio: Dr. Carpenter's research is fairly broad, but centers on phytoplankton ecology. The research has involved ocean acidification effects on a group of calcifying phytoplankton (coccolithophores), ecology of nitrogen fixation by marine planktonic cyanobacteria, biogeochemistry of the Amazon River discharge plume in the equatorial Atlantic Ocean, phytoplankton ecology of the San Francisco Bay low salinity zone, and the microbial ecology of glacial melt water streams in the Dry Valleys of Antarctica. Dr. Carpenter has been awarded the Antarctic medal for his research and service as a National Science Foundation program officer in Antarctica. Recent, ongoing research centers on the dynamics of phytoplankton abundance in San Francisco Bay and the occurrence and environmental forcing factors of toxic phytoplankton blooms around Kotzebue Alaska. This coastal village has ~3000 people, and they depend on local food sources for their sustenance, so these blooms can negatively affect their health and well-being.  He received a doctoral degree Honoris Causa from Stockholm University in Sweden in 2000. In 1964 he received his B.S. degree in Biology at SUNY College at Fredonia, and MS and PhD degrees in Zoology from North Carolina State University in 1967 and 1969, respectively. Dr. Carpenter did postdoctoral research at Woods Hole oceanographic Institution and was a research scientist there from 1969 to 1975, then was a Professor at Stony Brook University until 2000. He has been on the faculty of the Biology Department at San Francisco State University since 2000. He has carried out sabbatical research in Stockholm, Sweden, and Kiel, Warnemuende, and Munich, Germany.

Fall 2025 Seminar Series Schedule
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