Professor Grottoli has been studying coral reefs for 30 years. She and her team are focused on three areas of research: 1- determining what drives resilience in corals in the face of climate change, 2- developing blue technology for enhancing coral survivorship and restoration success, and 3- reconstructing oceanographic conditions in the past. She uses a combination of biology, physiology, and geochemistry tools in her research coupled with fieldwork and scuba diving. She has a pending patent for the UZELA technology (Underwater Zooplankton Enhancement Light Array) — a device that locally concentrates zooplankton so that corals have more to eat, grow more, and die less. She has published peer-reviewed journal articles in such journals as Nature, Global Change Biology, and Nature Communications, and she has been featured on National Public Radio and several websites and newspapers. Her recent Science Sundays talk “Can We Save Coral Reefs?” and Voices of Excellence podcast “Will Coral Reefs Survive?” summarizes her current work and passion for coral reefs.
Distinguished Professor of Arts and Sciences in the School of Earth Sciences at OSU
Affiliated Professor, Dept of Evolution, Ecology, and Organismal Biology, OSU
Education:
BSc. from McGill University (1992)
PhD from the University of Houston (1998)
Dreyfus Postdoctoral Fellow at the University of California – Irvine (2000)
Awards and Recognition:
Fellow, American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) (2017)
Fellow, International Coral Reef Society (2016)
Fellow, Ohio State University President and Provost’s Leadership Institute (2015-2016)
Fellow, Committee on Institutional Cooperation Academic Leadership Program (2013-2014)
Fulbright Scholar (France) 2020-2021
Rachel Carson Lecturer, American Geophysical Union’s Ocean Sciences Section (2021)
Voyager Award (mid-career), American Geophysical Union’s Ocean Sciences Section (2018)
Mid-Career Award, International Coral Reef Society (2016)
Faculty Mentor Award, OSU School of Earth Sciences (2016)
F.W. Clarke Award, Geochemical Society, Young Scientist Award in Geochemistry (2004)
American Society of Mass Spectrometry Research Award (2003)
Best Paper Award in the journal Coral Reefs (2000)
Other current leadership roles:
LabEX CORAIL (France), Scientific Council Member
National Coral Reef Institute, Technical Advisory Committee, Member
Coral Restoration Consortium – Genetics Working Group, Member
OSU, School of Earth Sciences Administrative Committee, Member
OSU, School of Earth Sciences Promotion and Tenure Committee, Chair
Past positions:
President of the International Coral Reef Society (2019-2022)
Director, Coral Bleaching Research Coordination Network (2019-2024)
Faculty Fellow, Office of Academic Affairs at Ohio State University (2023-2024)
Patents:
UZELA: Underwater Zooplankton Enhancement Light Array (Patent Pending Application Numbers US 19/127,361; AU 2023373381; SA 1120252948)
Students Advised:
17 graduate students
6 postdocs
37 undergraduate senior theses
100 undergraduate student researchers, volunteer, and interns
Certifications:
National Science Foundation I-Corps Great Lakes Region Program (2024)
Academic Leadership Program, Committee on Institutional Cooperation (B10) (2013-14)
President and Provost’s Leadership Institute, Ohio State University (2015-16)
Optimizing the Practice of Mentoring (National Research Mentoring Network at the University of Minnesota’s Clinical and Translational Science Institute) (Nov 2018)
OSU University Institute for Teaching and Learning Component 1 & 2 (2020)
Marquis Who’s Who 2024