Nancy Rabalais

{{Short description|American marine ecologist}} {{use mdy dates|date=January 2021}} {{Infobox scientist | honorific_prefix = | name = | honorific_suffix = | native_name = | native_name_lang = | image =  | image_size = | image_upright = | alt = | caption = | birth_name =  | birth_date =  | birth_place = Wichita Falls, Texas | other_names = | siglum = | pronounce = | citizenship = | fields = Marine ecology | workplaces = | patrons = | education = Texas A&M University–Kingsville | alma_mater = University of Texas at Austin | thesis_title =  | thesis_url =  | thesis_year =  | doctoral_advisor =  | academic_advisors = | doctoral_students = | notable_students = | known_for = | influences = | influenced = | awards = | author_abbrev_bot = | author_abbrev_zoo = | spouse =  | partner =  | children = | signature =  | signature_alt = | website =  | footnotes = }}

'''Nancy Nash Rabalais'''<ref>{{cite web |title=Nancy Nash Rabalais |url=https://honors.agu.org/honorsfellow/rabalais/ |website=Honors Program |publisher=American Geophysical Union |accessdate=September 3, 2020}}</ref> is an American marine ecologist. She researches dead zones in the marine environment and is an expert in eutrophication and nutrient pollution.

==Biography== Nancy Rabalais was born in Wichita Falls, Texas, the second of four children of Kathryn Charlotte Preusch and Stephen Anthony Nash, a mechanical engineer.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Profile on Rabalais by A.J.S. Rayl - Nobel Conference - 2009 |url=https://gustavus.edu/events/nobelconference/2009/rabalais-profile.php |access-date=2016-02-22 |website=gustavus.edu}}</ref> Rabalais earned her B.S. in 1972 and her M.S. in 1975 from Texas A&M University–Kingsville. Rabalais worked at Padre Island National Seashore in 1975 and began as a research assistant at the University of Texas Marine Science Institute, Port Aransas Marine Laboratory for 4 years. She began further graduate studies in 1979, working towards her Ph.D., where she studied fiddler crabs endemic to South Texas. She received her Ph.D. in Zoology from the University of Texas at Austin in 1983.<ref>{{Cite web|title = Coastal Command - The Scientist Magazine®|url = http://www.the-scientist.com/?articles.view/articleNo/37163/title/Coastal-Command/|website = The Scientist|access-date = 2016-02-22}}</ref>

Since 1985, Rabalais has studied the Gulf of Mexico's dead zone off the coast of Louisiana, the largest hypoxic zone in the United States. Along with two other researchers, she linked hypoxic zones in the Gulf with Mississippi River estuaries in 1985 through ocean mapping oxygen levels. This work was highlighted on the covers of BioScience in 1991 and Nature in 1994.<ref>{{Cite web|title = Coastal Command - The Scientist Magazine®|url = http://www.the-scientist.com/?articles.view/articleNo/37163/title/Coastal-Command/|website = The Scientist|access-date = 2016-02-22}}</ref> This research is credited to the creation of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s Mississippi River/Gulf of Mexico Hypoxia Task Force <ref>{{Cite web |last=Mazur |first=Joy |date=2025 |title=Gulf of Mexico dead zone researcher Nancy Rabalais leaves legacy for new generation |url=https://projects.wuft.org/priceofplenty/water-and-land/gulf-of-mexico-dead-zone-researcher-nancy-rabalais-leaves-legacy-for-new-generation/ |access-date=2025-01-29 |website=The Price of Plenty |language=en-US}}</ref> which was established in 1997 to manage and control hypoxia and dead zones in the region.<ref>{{Cite web |last=US EPA |first=OW |date=2015-03-06 |title=History of the Hypoxia Task Force |url=https://www.epa.gov/ms-htf/history-hypoxia-task-force |access-date=2025-01-29 |website=United States Environmental Protection Agency |language=en}}</ref>

She joined the Louisiana Universities Marine Consortium (LUMCON) in 1983 and, with funding from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), identified a substantial hypoxic zone that had been affecting shrimpers.<ref>{{cite news|last1=Nuwer|first1=Rachel|author-link=Rachel Nuwer |title=Q and A: Tracking a Worrisome Dead Zone|url=http://green.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/10/15/q-and-a-tracking-a-worrisome-dead-zone/|work=The New York Times|date=October 15, 2012}}</ref>

Rabalais has testified to Congress on the problem of nutrient pollution from agricultural and storm water runoff.

She was the president of the nonprofit Coastal and Estuarine Research Federation from 1997 to 1999.<ref>{{Cite book|title = An Ecosystem Services Approach to Assessing the Impacts of the Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill in the Gulf of Mexico|url = https://books.google.com/books?id=JgB1AgAAQBAJ|publisher = National Academies Press|date = 2013-12-20|isbn = 9780309288453|language = en|first1 = Committee on the Effects of the Deepwater Horizon Mississippi Canyon-252 Oil Spill on Ecosystem Services in the Gulf of|last1 = Mexico|first2 = Ocean Studies|last2 = Board|first3 = Division on Earth and Life|last3 = Studies|first4 = National Research|last4 = Council}}</ref>

She referred to the 2010 ''Deepwater Horizon'' oil spill as an "oilmageddon".<ref>{{cite web|title=Dr. Nancy Rabalais: Troubled Waters in the Gulf of Mexico|url=http://ocean.si.edu/ocean-videos/dr-nancy-rabalais-troubled-waters-gulf-mexico|publisher=Smithsonian Ocean Portal|date=March 29, 2011}}</ref>

She was the executive director of LUMCON from 2005-2016, where she was also a professor. She became a Professor/Shell Endowed Chair in Oceanography and Coastal Studies, Louisiana State University, in 2016, where she is still employed. She is also director of the Coastal Waters Consortium and has chaired the Ocean Studies Board of the National Research Council.<ref>{{cite book|last1=Seideman|first1=Yael Calhoun, series editor ; foreword by David|title=Water Pollution|date=2005|publisher=Chelsea House Publishers|location=Philadelphia|isbn=978-1-4381-0232-0|page=131|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=hr5LVB3naEQC&q=Nancy%20Rabalais&pg=PA131}}</ref> Up until 2023, she led annual research surveys to determine the size of the dead zone,<ref>{{Cite web |last=Missourian |first=Joy Mazur, Columbia |date=June 8, 2023 |title=A lifetime of research links Gulf of Mexico 'dead zone' to Midwest fertilizer runoff |url=https://investigatemidwest.org/2023/06/08/a-lifetime-of-research-links-gulf-of-mexico-dead-zone-to-midwest-fertilizer-runoff/ |access-date=November 22, 2025 |website=Investigate Midwest |language=en-US}}</ref> which data are used to identify the progress towards Mississippi River/Gulf of Mexico Hypoxia Task Force's goal of a dead zone 1,900 square miles or smaller by 2035.<ref>{{Cite web |date=August 3, 2022 |title=Below-average Gulf of Mexico ‘dead zone’ measured {{!}} National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration |url=https://www.noaa.gov/news-release/below-average-gulf-of-mexico-dead-zone-measured |access-date=November 22, 2025 |website=www.noaa.gov |language=en}}</ref>

Rabalais was the recipient of an NOAA Environmental Hero Award<ref>{{Cite web|title = NOAA Outlook - Earth Day (Environmental Heroes)|url = http://www.outlook.noaa.gov/earthday/nos.htm|website = www.outlook.noaa.gov|access-date = 2016-02-22}}</ref> and Aldo Leopold Leadership Program Fellowship in 1999,<ref>{{Cite web|title = Aldo Leopold Leadership Program selects fellows - News and Research Communications - Oregon State University|url = http://oregonstate.edu/ua/ncs/archives/1999/mar/aldo-leopold-leadership-program-selects-fellows|website = oregonstate.edu|access-date = 2016-02-22|date = 2009-08-04}}</ref> the 17th Annual Heinz Award (with special focus on the environment) in 2011<ref>{{cite web|title=The Heinz Awards: Nancy Rabalais|url=http://www.heinzawards.net/recipients/nancy-rabalais|website=The Heinz Awards|access-date=August 26, 2016}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|title=Gulf champion Nancy Rabalais gets her due: An editorial|url=http://www.nola.com/opinions/index.ssf/2011/09/gulf_champion_nancy_rabalais_g.html|work=The Times-Picayune|date=September 19, 2011}}</ref> and MacArthur Fellowship in 2012.<ref>{{cite news|last1=Schleifstein|first1=Mark|title=Louisiana "dead zone" scientist wins $500,000 MacArthur "Genius Grant"|url=http://www.nola.com/environment/index.ssf/2012/10/louisiana_marine_ecologist_win.html|work=The Times-Picayune|date=October 5, 2012}}</ref> Rabalais was elected to the National Academy of Sciences in 2021.<ref>{{Cite web|title=2021 NAS Election|url=http://www.nasonline.org/news-and-multimedia/news/2021-nas-election.html|access-date=2021-04-26|website=www.nasonline.org}}</ref>

In 2012, she and several colleagues started the Coastal Waters Consortium, which focused on the effects of the BP oil spill on the Gulf of Mexico’s ecosystems and food webs within.<ref>{{Cite web|title = Information - CWC|url = http://cwc.lumcon.edu/?page_id=1914|website = cwc.lumcon.edu|access-date = 2016-02-22}}</ref>

Rabalais has been published in the journals ''Biogeosciences'', ''BioScience'', ''Nature'', and ''Science''.

She is married to R. Eugene Turner, an LSU colleague whom she has published work with before, including their book ''Coastal Hypoxia: Consequences for Living Resources and Ecosystems''.<ref>{{Cite book|title = Coastal Hypoxia: Consequences for Living Resources and Ecosystems - Wiley Online Library|volume = 58|doi = 10.1029/ce058|series = Coastal and Estuarine Studies|year = 2001|isbn = 978-0-87590-272-2|last1 = Rabalais|first1 = Nancy N.}}</ref> His work focuses inshore, while hers is in the waters of the Gulf. They have a daughter, Emily.<ref>{{Cite web|title = Profile on Rabalais by A.J.S. Rayl - Nobel Conference - 2009|url = https://gustavus.edu/events/nobelconference/2009/rabalais-profile.php|website = gustavus.edu|access-date = 2016-02-22}}</ref>

== Awards ==

* Rachel Carson Award Lecture, American Geophysical Union (2012)

==References== {{reflist}}

==External links== {{wikiquote}} *[http://www.gulfhypoxia.net/ Hypoxia in the Northern Gulf of Mexico]

{{DEFAULTSORT:Rabalais, Nancy}} Category:Living people Category:American marine biologists Category:MacArthur Fellows Category:Texas A&M University–Kingsville alumni Category:University of Texas at Austin alumni Category:Year of birth missing (living people) Category:Members of the United States National Academy of Sciences Category:20th-century American women scientists Category:21st-century American women scientists Category:Biologists from Texas