https://oceanexpert.org/expert/CarolStepien

ORCID : 0000-0002-5544-4333

PhD

Teaching/Education
Research
Technical Advice & Consulting

Biological Oceanography, Marine Ecology
Chemical Oceanography
Fisheries, Aquaculture

Carol Stepien is a Research Associate at the National Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institution where she investigates molecular ecology and population genetic/genomic/systematic relationships of fishes and marine/aquatic invertebrates (crustaceans, mollusks). She served as the NOAAA Ocean Environment Research Division Leader from 2016-2021 in Seattle and Newport OR, overseeing 80 federal and university researchers and helping to establish NOAA Omics and EEO mentoring. Carol grew up on the shores off Lake Erie in Cleveland, Ohio, foraging for fossils and salamanders in the metro parks.  Her family often went to California to visit her grandparents and Carol loved to visit aquaria to observe fishes, and swim and snorkel. She took up Scuba diving and marine biology at Bowling Green University, and often went to Florida with the scuba club and studied at the Gulf Coast Marine Lab, where her first papers were on neurobiology of luminescence in the Atlantic midshipman (a fish). She received their 2023 alumni award for Marine Biology Research. Carol entered the PhD program in Ecology and Evolution at University of Southern California to do her field work scuba diving at Catalina Island, studying Genetic and Environmental Factors regulating color morphic patterns in kelp fishes, winning the ASIH Stoye award in Ichthyology. She then wrote an NSF postdoc to work with Dick Rosenblatt at Scripps Institution of Oceanography on molecular genetics of fishes, followed by a Sloan Postdoc in molecular evolution with Dave Hillis at University of Texas, and back to San Diego to a NOAA National Research Council postdoc where she published on population genetics of Dover sole and thornyhead fishes. Carol then accepted an endowed assistant professorship at Case Western Reserve University, and in 2004 became the Director of the Lake Erie Center and a tenured full professor at the University of Toledo. She was promoted to a lifelong Distinguished Professor of Ecology at the University of Toledo. Carol was honored as an American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) elected fellow in 2017 for her research and mentorship. Carol has 126 scientific papers on molecular ecology, evolutionary genomics, population genetics, biogeography, and systematics. She has headed >$14 million in NSF, NOAA, EPA, SeaGrant, and USDA grants. Special research interests are community and species diversity comparisons, using genomic and bioinformatic analyses for evaluating planktonic and benthic communities and environmental (e) DNA across time and space, in relation to anthropogenic and natural fluctuations in chemical, physical, and biological patterns in marine, estuarine, and freshwater communities. Her awards include Sigma Xi Outstanding Researcher, University of Toledo’s Outstanding Researcher, and Outstanding Grantsmanship. She presently serves as associate editor for the journal Ecological Processes, and on the editorial boards of Environmental DNA and DNA. She served on the International Association for Great Lakes Research board, as associate editor for Journal of Great Lakes Research, Environmental DNA, and Biological Invasions, and on the Editorial Board of Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution. Her recent research develops and applies, targeted high-throughput metabarcode and whole genome sequencing to detect, identify, and understand members of marine and freshwater communities, and evaluate their genomic adaptations and genetic connectivity patterns, in relation to environmental conditions (including warming, hypoxia, acidification, and invasive species).

Mediterranean Sea - Western Basin
Mediterranean Sea - Eastern Basin
Black Sea
Chukchi Sea
Gulf of Mexico
Caribbean Sea
Bering Sea
Gulf of Alaska
Gulf of California
North Pacific Ocean
Baltic Sea

Genetics/Genomics/Bioinformatics
Molecular Systematics
Marine Ecology
Molecular Ecology
DNA Sequencing
Environmental DNA
Evolutionary Ecology
Biogeography

English
French
Spanish

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