NOGI

:: Paul Dayton, Ph.D. - Science - 2005

Dr. Paul Dayton is a world-renowned biological oceanographer at Scripps Oceanographic Institution. Professor Dayton researches coastal and estuarine habitats, including seafloor (or "benthic") and kelp communities, as well as global fisheries. He has conducted investigations in several parts of the world, including spending more than 50 months in McMurdo Sound, Antarctica, performing research during more than 900 dives under the ice. The scientific papers resulting from these research projects are largely believed to have set the standard for Antarctic undersea ecology. Dayton's studies also include the impacts of overfishing on marine ecosystems. Dayton is a PEW Fellow and recently served as a director for the Ocean Conservancy and the National Research Council Panel on Marine Protected Areas. Dr. Dayton's career has been motivated by the belief that one must understand nature to protect it, and he has attempted to use analytical

techniques to understand marine community systems. The Aquarium of the Pacific in Long Beach, Calif., also recently honored Dayton with an Award for Merit for outstanding scientific research and for his work in management and policy and the 2002 American Academy of Underwater Sciences (AAUS) Scientific Diving Lifetime Achievement Award. He is also the only person to have won both of the Ecological Society of America's Mercer and Cooper research awards and in 2004 he won the E.O. Wilson award from the American Society of Naturalists. A resident of Solana Beach, Calif., Dayton was born in Tucson, Ariz., and received a B.Sc. in zoology from the University of Arizona in 1963. In 1970, he earned a Ph.D. in zoology from the University of Washington, Seattle. He is a member of the Ecological Society of America and the American Society of Naturalists, and he is both a member and a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. In 1990, he was appointed a member of the U.S. Marine Mammal Commission by President George Bush. He has served the United States Marine Mammal Commission and the University of California Natural Reserve System. Previously he received the Louise Burt Award for excellence in oceanographic writing from Oregon State University.