David Siegel

Biography

Professor Siegel received a B.A. in Chemistry and a B.S. in Engineering Sciences from University of California, San Diego and M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in Geological Sciences from the University of Southern California. In 1989, he was a postdoctoral fellow at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution. Since 1990, he has been on the faculty at University of California, Santa Barbara and is a Distinguished Professor in the Department of Geography, an Affiliated Professor in the Department of Ecology, Evolution and Marine Biology and is presently Chair of UCSB’s Interdepartmental Graduate Program in Marine Science.

Research

His research focuses on the functioning marine ecosystems on local to global scales using the tools of an applied physicist. He has worked extensively in marine bio-optics, satellite remote sensing and physical oceanography assessing problems ranging from ocean biogeochemical cycling, pelagic microbial diversity, kelp forest dynamics, benthic-pelagic coupling and nearshore fisheries management. He is presently the Science Lead of the NASA / NSF supported EXport Processes in the Ocean using RemoTe Sensing (EXPORTS) field campaign.