Margaret Leinen


Margaret Leinen is an American paleoceanographer and paleoclimatologist. Her research interests are on ocean sediments and their relationship to global biogeochemical cycles and the history of Earth's ocean and climate. In 2013, Leinen was appointed the 11th director of the Scripps Institution of Oceanography, as well as the dean of the School of Marine Sciences at the University of California, San Diego.

Education

In 1969 Leinen received her Bachelor of Science degree in Geology from the University of Illinois, a master's in geological oceanography from Oregon State University in 1975, and her doctorate in oceanography in 1980 from the University of Rhode Island.

Career

She was previously the Vice Provost for Marine and Environmental Programs and Dean of the Graduate School of Oceanography and College of the Environment and Life Sciences at the University of Rhode Island; Assistant Director for Geosciences and Coordinator of Environmental Research and Education at the National Science Foundation, President of the Climate Response Fund; Vice Provost for Marine and Environmental Initiatives and executive director of the Harbor Branch Oceanographic Institute of Florida Atlantic University; and President of the American Geophysical Union.

Honors

She has been elected fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science and of the Geological Society of America. In 2016, she was selected as a U.S. Science Envoy by the United States State Department.